Fringe
by Captain Lupin Ferus
Summary: Gates to different worlds have always been there, you just never know that they're there. Sometimes, you just run right into them without even knowing it. Grab your hardhats; the Storm Hawks are coming to town, and trouble isn't too far behind them.
1. Prologue: Imaginary

**Fringe  
Prologue: Imaginary**

_**Disclaimer: **_**I do not own the cartoon **_**Storm Hawks**_**. It and all its respectable characters are © to Asaph "Ace" Fipke and Nerd Corps.** **What I do own, however, is this plot, most of the settings and I belong to myself; they are my brainchildren, so please do not steal, because stealing is wrong. Plus…I don't think I'd like being stolen very much, 'kay, thanks. All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them.**

**For my readers, old (who reread this by chance) and new readers (who stumbled upon my story), welcome and enjoy **_**Fringe**_**. There will be crazed things to ensue, so be prepared, I again invite you to enjoy, and please, review at the end of the chapter. I thrive upon them, and I won't lie about it. They help inspire me, little by little, to write for new chapters. :3**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

_This is a work of fiction. All characters in it, human or otherwise, are imaginary, excepting only certain of the fairy folk, whom it may be unwise to offend by casting doubts on their existence. Or lack thereof.  
_**- Neil Gaiman**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

To be quite honest, the Storm Hawks were at a loss. Their first initial suspicion was that they had stumbled upon some new plot concocted by the Cyclonians, whether it was being run by Ravess, Snipe, or the Dark Ace himself. Their first suspicions began when the _Condor_'s navigational systems began to slowly die and fail on them, although the ship itself was running just fine. Stork slowed their pace down, and the _Condor_ soon was chugging along at a sluggish tempo, the thick clouds surrounding them for a long while. Silence held for a long time, and when the clouds parted, Piper moved forward, prepared to view the stars and perhaps gather a location for them. But, as soon as she began swiftly looking over the positions of the stars and the constellations, she stepped back with a startled gasp.

"They moved!" She said, and a small explosion of comments ensued afterwards. Worry rippled through the Storm Hawks, but Aerrow calmed them, eyeing Stork when the Merb continued his mutters of doom prophecies and painful death predictions. The clouds took over again and they once more fell into the pattern of silence, waiting it out. Radarr chattered every once in a while, looking worriedly out the 'bay windows. Stork finally began to guide the _Condor_ lower, to escape the constant cloud cover.

Below was a sight to behold: there was nothing but lights and vibrant color below. Moving lights stretched beyond the dark mountain landscape, riding alongside the glowing, lit town below. It was too large a land to be a regular, or even larger-sized, terra. Junko and Finn quickly went to the turrets on either side of the Condor's main 'bay, and the wind whipped at them as they surveyed the surrounding land behind them. Piper viewed the ground below for closer inspection with the telescope. She swallowed thickly, and slowly pushed it away, looking at Aerrow's expectant face and glanced at Radarr's worried one.

"That isn't a terra below us…it's solid ground." She announced with a worried face, a creased frown on her lips. Junko and Finn returned and confirmed with Piper.

"What does this mean? Do you think…we're on the other side of Atmos?" Junko asked, almost with a hint of fear in his voice, just barely there.

Aerrow thought for a moment, looking over the different faces staring back at him in such expectant ways, he was almost for a loss of words. Almost.

"No…it can't be. The other half of Atmos is guarded by mountains that no ship can climb over them, not even the Condor. Something else is going on…but I don't think it's the Cyclonians. Not even they can change the stars, merge terras, or get rid of the Wastelands. Nobody can."

"So, what do we do now, oh fearless leader? Not that it's going to matter much…we're all going to die, anyways."

Piper was looking through the telescope once again, squinting through the lens.

"Piper? What do you think?" Aerrow asked. The young woman pushed aside the telescope once more and motioned to the right side.

"We should land, somewhere in the mountains. It's dark, so just be careful. We don't know the lay of the land that well. Maybe there's something in my geography books, something that references this…"

She left with a countenance of deep thought and muttered to herself the rest of the way to her room, while Aerrow turned to Stork.

"Let's set the _Condor_ down then, and see if we can't get some reconnaissance going, then. We should see where we are and more importantly, what we're dealing with here." With that said, Stork wordlessly obeyed, banking the Condor down and over the glowing little town, past the freeway and into the mountains.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

There was somehow a simple joy in just driving. Cruising, speeding, shifting from one gear right to the next and perhaps even showing off _juuuuust_ a little bit, it all felt good. Especially to a young woman who had nothing more to do than go to work, go to class, do homework, and perhaps have a street race every once in a while. Which was rare, even in and of itself.

Lupin was currently enjoying herself as she raced down the freeway, weaving in through traffic, leaning back in her plush seats, renewed and refurbished recently, and her radio was on blast, also having been replaced with new speakers and new radio system to play her iPod. The vehicle in which she was currently driving was a beauty from a hallmarked past, a 1976 Chevrolet Camaro, having had new additions and repairs done to its chassis, interior and engine.

It was her project car, and it was coming along beautifully, and it was also her baby. She, at the moment, would not trade it in for anything, except perhaps, one of a newer 2010 Camaro. However, Lupin knew that she, living off of a measly wage, could never afford the payments for the newer vehicle. Especially the insurance for a new sports vehicle; it would be financial suicide.

She was happy, though, and had won many a street race with her older modeled vehicle, and was proud enough of its progress in its restoration. She hoped, one day, it would be just as nice looking as her stepfather's 1968 Camaro.

At the moment, as Lupin was moving steadily through traffic, she was testing the new suspension system and the recent alignment of her Camaro. It was a smoother drive than when she had picked it up as an old rust bucket, and quite literally, it was. She remembered the day she bought it, almost a year ago, with a loan from the bank and money from her savings. She had to be taught stick shift for it, and it had been a quick learning. She already knew the basics, having been driving a dirt bike most of her teen youth, so the principalities of switching her shifting and clutch limbs were an easy conversion.

She focused and toiled most of her money—and small loans from her parents here and there—into restoring the older vehicle, and struggled to get it past the admissions smog test. Now she could creep along the roads without worrying for flashing lights in her rearview mirror any longer.

Her exit was coming up and Lupin eyed it for a moment, and then glanced at her digital clock readout. As much as she appreciated the older style of the vehicle, some sacrifices had to be made. She had to change out dash readouts from its old manual readouts to digital ones and the bobbing gas tank measure had to be replaced as well. That had cost a pretty penny, but as she gazed at the gas tank gauge, she was secretly glad she did so. There were times when the bobbing device would get stuck and she'd have to guess on how much gas she had left until it got unstuck.

Lupin smoothly moved over to the exit lane and ascended to the stoplight at the end of the exit ramp, blinker clicked on. _Let's give the mall a quick stop, shall we? _She thought with a quick, gleeful grin. It was almost closing time, but she still had time to browse through real quick. Plus, she was craving a coffee and there was a coffee shop up the hill. No harm in stopping there on her way home, was there.

Above in the skies, however, Lupin failed to notice the low-flying ship that was passing by, nor did she see the blazing blue trails it left in its wake. Her music was simply too loud, her thoughts elsewhere, like the road for one.

Others noticed. A child playing in her backyard in her home just behind the mall stopped playing jump rope to watch. A thought of aliens crossed her mind, briefly, and then she went back to jump roping. Several dogs whined and barked and one even bayed at the metal behemoth flying overhead. A young couple parked in the mall parking lot was startled at the sight from the rearview mirror, and upturned their faces at the window to squint at its dark hide as it passed into the dark sky. They immediately dismissed it; almost sure it was a hallucination from their previous use of drugs earlier that evening.

By the time Lupin climbed the rest of the hill up to the mall, where Lupin would have had a perfect view of the thing, it disappeared completely and she missed the view. If she had seen it, she probably would've stopped dead in the road and stared at it in a slack-jawed fashion, both amazed and curious at the sight. But, she didn't see it, which was her own loss, and she slowed her vehicle down, not wanting to risk catching attention on street roads. Besides…she could smell the bacon and it was somewhere close by.

"Po-po…where are you?" She whispered in a singsong voice, eyes scanning the road ahead. As she would say to a friend, her "Spidey-senses were tingling," and within several seconds, lo and behold, a cruiser came into view. She grinned, feeling self-accomplished and drove past, turned into the mall parking lot and began creeping along, looking for a space.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

It hadn't taken long to find a spot, most of the parking lot was eerily empty and devoid of life. It was just fine by Lupin. Aside from a few exceptions, Lupin was sadly one of those individuals who didn't care much for humanity and even hated it as a whole on some occasions. There were times she wished it were better, but then reminded herself who was she kidding? Humans were self-aware of their self-destructive behaviors, and perhaps that would be their downfall one day. _Or maybe that Mayan prediction for 2012 will come true and the world will end,_ she thought sardonically as she slipped on her headphones.

Music began to pour into her ears, drowning out the dullness of the world around her and she began traipsing towards the mall. It was not an inside mall, like most structures, but rather its accommodations and stores were situated outside, like businesses situated near a grocery store, and the only buildings that contained completely interior business were the two Macy's on either ends of the mall. It was a bit of a disadvantage, Lupin often reflected. She certainly didn't like it when the wind kicked up and made everything that much colder, or when it rained. There was no roofing structure to protect from rain, no walls to protect from biting wind.

_Who designed this place again? Oh, that's right, morons. Probably went to night school and skated on their finals. Pricks._ Sure, it was nice on a hot, summer's day, but during the winter when the days were chilly and nights even colder… _Brr. No thanks, I'll stay home. _

She was reaching the end of her parking lane, when a rumble in the air sent vibrations through her and she looked down the road to see a troupe of motorcycles heading down the strip of road towards her. She backed off onto the planter's curb and waited as the vehicles passed by, uninterested and instead, was looking down, fiddling with her iPod.

If Lupin had been looking, like with the ship earlier that evening, she would have noticed something rather peculiar about the bikes, and how much larger and bulkier they were compared to the motorcycles she was used to seeing. She would also have noticed how peculiarly familiar the riders were, and perhaps would have even noticed that one vehicle was not a bike at all, but more resembled a miniature sandrail, like the ones she's ridden in the Mojave with camping buddies she and her family often went out with.

By the time she lifted her head, the bikes were gone, and after turning a corner down a lane, she couldn't see them and proceeded across the strip of road and onto the curb that led into the mall. Like the parking lot, the mall was not very alive, and although there were scores of shoppers, it was rather bleak and tired-looking. She stopped at the Game Stop, and browsed through the selection. She eyed a DS with greedy eyes, and an indeterminate grimace, bouncing on the balls of her feet the longer she stared at the displayed boxes.

_They're mocking me!_ She mentally whined, looking back between the DS and the only available Pokemon game, the Platinum Version. Finally, after a few minutes' consideration, she yanked both off the wall and strolled to the register. _I deserve a treat, goddammit. I've been working hard; I've got the money to dish out right now!_

Purchases in hand a few minutes later, Lupin waltzed out, feeling high as a kite at the prospect of a new gaming system and a new game to boot. Rarely, Lupin divulged in buying games; they were always expensive, and could range anywhere between as low as thirty bucks, to as high as sixty. She hated waiting, but hated dishing the money out even more. Unless it was a really worth it game, was coming out around the Christmas holidays or her birthday, and she could coerce minds into getting it for her during those special times of the year.

She inwardly cackled at her clever purchase, however, still experiencing that good, fluffy feeling inside. _Oh, I'm so gonna have fun with this game, yes I am! And when SoulSilver and HeartGold come out next year, that's just gonna make my day even more! Yes!_

What a nerd, right? And to think, the games came out sometime last year and it was October of 2009 now. What a late nerd. But, she was walking on sunshine, in a figurative sense of course, because walking on real sunshine, well…that would probably hurt. A lot. And possibly end up in death.

Lupin was jazzed at her purchase, sure enough, and while she was a hard-working college student, currently working two jobs (unfortunately, both of them part-time, but jobs nonetheless), she felt energetic at the moment, despite her constant fatigue. She rarely slept, and often survived off of coffee and other sources of caffeine to maintain her working jobs, and going to school in-between.

So, despite her usual tiredness, Lupin was feeling happy, safe to say, as she moved closer towards a certain shop that most likely everyone in the country had heard of: Hot Topic. The store of the bizarre and strange, and at most times, nerdy old-school gamers and show-lovers. One of the few reasons Lupin visited the shop was usually for her _Transformers_ love, whether it was Bay's remake or the old-school G1 _Transformers_.

…Okay, and sometimes they had decent Halloween props. And, as soon as the store's dark red, neon glowing sign came into view, she instantly remembered she needed a few from the store, and they were cheap to get.

So, she stopped inside and immediately began browsing, nodding to the young woman at the register, eyeing her from behind a curtain of pink-dyed bangs before she returned to her magazine. Lupin prowled around the displays, and slowly began picking through them. There were other props for her costume she'd need, she suddenly realized, as she carefully began assessing items.

Twenty minutes later, she finished lurking around the tiny store, items in hand and she laid them before the register. The woman put away her magazine and beamed at Lupin, a little too brightly.

"So, did you find everything you wanted?"

"Yeah, just gotta finish up my costume with all these things," Lupin answered, flipping a pair of vampire fangs right side up while she spoke.

"Yeah, I need to finish putting mine together too. Ooh, these are a really good brand, by the way. Good choice. The other ones we got on the rack. Pfffft. You can't talk worth shit with them on. At least you can kind of eat and drink with these, _and_ you can talk _decently_."

Lupin grinned a little as the woman scanned the fangs, deposited them in a Hot Topic bag and finished ringing up the rest of the purchases.

"I used them last year, but I lost them."

"I wouldn't recommend using them again a year later, though. The putty isn't for forever, you know."

Lupin, who was taller than the counter only by a measly foot, leaned on it and bobbed her head in a sort-of agreeing manner before handing her card over for payment.

"I'll keep it in mind," the young woman agreed before she was walking out of another store with another set of purchases. It was at this moment, the right moment, she walked out just in time to run into a certain set of teenagers, not that much younger than her, really, when she stepped out of the store. And, quite literally, she bumped right into them.

It wasn't really anyone's fault; she rushed out, head down and attention primarily on disentangling her fingers from the twisted mess of her bags. The young Storm Hawks hadn't expected to be intercepted mid-way through their search for answers by a young woman who was shorter than all of them, except for Radarr, obviously. To say the least, Lupin was rather jumpy, and could either have one of two reactions. One reaction could be she got pissed off, spitting and cursing out profanity and snapping unceremoniously while letting her anger get the best of her. That case was rare, since she rarely lashed out in public like that. The second was she became apologetic on the spot, depending on the mixed moods she was in.

Lupin tended to, upon default, lean towards the latter rather than the former, and upon her current mood, was indeed leaning towards the latter. One does not simply bump off from happy-go-lucky to suddenly pissed off and angry in a split second. Unless you had a pituitary gland disorder or had a bipolar disorder. Than that's a medical problem and Lupin had neither of those, so it was safe to say, she went apologetic in an instant.

She looked up practically on impact, and pushed off backwards in a fright, eyes slightly wide but not too much as she realized what she'd done.

"Oh, sweet Jesus, I'm sorry, dude, I didn't mean…mean to…to…" She trailed off all of a sudden, at a loss for words at the taller—but not by much—figure before her and she blinked back her first initial shock. She stared at the Storm Hawks, her eyes now wider than a few seconds ago as she took in their initial appearance before the first thought finally came to mind.

_What great fuckin' costumes. _

The one dressed as Aerrow grinned at her, and she had to admit, he really did look like the kid from the cartoon series; it was like he was simply plucked from the show itself. The same could be said for the others; even Junko and Stork's costume seemed all too realistic; it was like a Hollywood makeover. _They must be going to a Halloween party later on or something._

"Don't worry about it; we didn't really see you coming, either. I'm fine, anyways," the young man dressed as Aerrow replied breezily. Lupin had another thought occur to her, as they began to trek on past the store, and she hesitated for a few split seconds, fiddling with the phone in her pocket.

"Hey, um, wait!" She called after them, feeling ultimately like an idiot, a nerd, and a rude thing all at once, but hell, any fan would've done the same…right?

They paused, and all of them turned to look, and she noticed that the Finn-look alike was eyeing her with a bit of a grin to his face. She almost rolled her eyes. Almost. _He's just a kid, don't get slaggin' upset, just…keep calm. As long as he doesn't touch your ass, you're fine._

She approached them, still feeling somewhat foolish, but at the same time, determined.

"Hey, can I take a picture of y'all? I mean, your costumes, they're fuckin' amazing, I'm serious."

"Costumes?" The young woman, the Piper-look alike, looked at her in a puzzled manner. "These aren't costumes. They're uniforms."

This time Lupin looked back at them, expressing the same confusion. "Um…uniforms can be costumes, too. You guys _are_ cosplaying for Halloween, aren't you? For a party later on, right?"

"No, we aren't, actually." The Aerrow kid answered, looking somewhat uncomfortable and confused as well.

"And what's Halloween?" This came from the Junko in the back. Lupin paused at this, blinked and took a step back, looking back and forth between each face, and then she finally noticed the little creature beside Aerrow. Blue-furred, opposable-thumbed, clothes-wearing…

Lupin suddenly felt her mouth go dry and her throat felt parched. Then it passed and she narrowed her eyes. "Oh, very funny. Like you don't know what Halloween is. Everyone knows what Halloween is, dude. Don't try to pull that one on me." Out of good measure, Lupin added, "And don't try to sell me on the whole "we're not from around here or this world" spiel, 'cuz I won't buy that cheap movie knock-off crap."

There were collective stares around the group of six, mixtures of confusion, suspicion, fear, pessimism, and realization passed about. She was especially getting nasty little glints from the Stork-look alike. The Radarr creature looked real enough and while they were quietly discussing amongst themselves, Lupin squatted down, tilting her head she peered at him.

"Cool robot you got there…he looks really real," she mumbled more to herself than the other five. Radarr growled and bared his teeth at her. She snorted, not realizing he really was a living breathing thing and stared, unimpressed. "Nice reactions. I bet the Japanese made him. They're making freakin' Transformers down there, for God's sakes. They'll probably make Godzilla next."

She reached out a hand towards Radarr and out of response; Radarr took a snap at her, and landed a good bite before retreating back. She backed away and landed on her butt before scrambling to her feet, holding her offended hand close to her, eyes wider now at the growling Radarr.

"Hey! What the hell is that thing!" She yelped, landing a glare on them all now. Now she was getting pissed off. Now she was ready to throw punches. Screw suing someone, violence was the answer, dammit.

Aerrow quickly eased the furry blue creature and held him off before looking at Lupin apologetically and perhaps even a little warily. She didn't return the sympathetic gesture.

"What. Is. That. Thing."

"This…is Radarr. My co-pilot. And just to clarify…I don't think we are from around here. If you don't believe us, that's fine, but we can prove it."

Lupin narrowed her eyes further, jaw clenched, hand throbbing and her heart pounding in her chest. She was feeling that it would be a good idea to walk away now, to simply walk off, and forget about these weird kids who believed they were the real Storm Hawks, who believed they were really heroes from another world. _Delusional, and by the handful. Who'd have thunk? Maybe they belong in a loony bin. Oh, sorry, mental hospital. Tch. _

That was what her head was saying. Her gut was telling her a completely different story, though. _Trust them, and see where it goes. Something's going on and it isn't good. Help them. _

She was torn between cussing them out and walking off, and trusting these kids—who couldn't be that much younger than her—and perhaps even seeing where this was going. She eyed the kid that was dressed as Junko and hesitated at his height, and of course, the bulging muscles his forearms boasted. _He could crush me without much effort. Then again, I look like a freakin' toothpick enough…_

She was nineteen, lean and lithe with enough leg muscle to get her running fast and far enough if she needed a quick getaway. And while she wasn't wrestle-mania strong, she was one of the better heavy-lifters in her family and was often called to carry the heavier groceries or burdens at her parents' house.

Once more, she weighed her options. If things got wacky, she could just hike it back to her car and say fuck them and go home. And if things went the other way…

She didn't know what the "other way" was, but she figured she needed some entertainment, first and foremost, and well…she was curious. She would admit, hands down, and if she believed in God, she would swear to him, that she was infinitely curious. And, it was often the curious nature of human beings to get themselves either into a lucky situation or a horrible one. And, figuring that she'd been having a stroke of bad luck lately, perhaps this was her breaking point to finally have some good luck instead.

Lupin, standing a little more straight so that she looked her full height of five-foot-even, tilted her head slightly and surveyed the group before her with curious, but suspicious blue-gray eyes.

"Okay, then…show me proof."

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

She met them on the backside of the mall, down by the bus stop. Lupin knew for a fact, after having taken the bus for several years, and hoarding a pile of bus schedules so she could get to school at decent roundabout times; that the buses stopped around eight o'clock. She pulled up in her recently repainted vehicle, the golden yellow paint gleaming under street lights, and the black racing stripes only adding to its tuff visage. The throaty engine rumbled as she came closer to the group of bike-laden youths and she had to raise a questioning brow at that as she approached.

_They're definitely not old enough to even have permits, let alone licenses. What in the name of fuckery is going on? _

Deep down, a voice whispered back to her about how they were telling the truth and that she should stop denying it. She shook the trailing thoughts away, holding fast to her principle of, "If I can see or touch it, then I believe in it". It was one of those reasons she didn't believe in God, or in any religion, for that matter. They might make the argument of, "_Well you can't _see_ the air_", she'll simply counter with, "_You sure as fuckin' hell can _feel_ it, though!_"

She idled for a few moments after stopping in front of the group and she eyed their rides for a while, frowning. _They certainly…look like Skimmers._

_But can they fly?_

Lupin finally cut the engine short and parked the vehicle, getting out and putting her curled fists onto her hips. "Well?" She said, feeling somewhat impatient to get it over with. "Show me proof that you're not from this world, then. _Impress me._"

She doubted they could. Then, through some unspoken command, they seemed to change a little. Even as they settled more heavily onto their bikes, no longer slouching like kids, suddenly looking older, more experienced, and suddenly intent on their goal, she felt an inkling of doubt. But somehow, she was feeling it fade and she couldn't hold onto it, it was disappearing like wisps of smoke.

The engines started up; a crescendo of building harmony from the vibrating machines. It made Lupin suddenly nostalgic for the desert, for the desert wind and the pure, empty silence, to feel the bumps of the dirt trails…

She watched as Aerrow squealed out of his parked spot and nearly swerved into her car, then moved out of the way with liquid ease. The others followed quickly and raced for the end of the road, right before its inevitable bend to the left. She waited…

And saw, with amazement, as the side panels suddenly leaped out and deployed into wings on either side of the bikes. In Piper's case, a helicopter blade-set slid out from the back end of her scooter vehicle, rotating above her head. Stork's little sandrail buggy took off into the air with a set of booster rockets from its undercarriage and Lupin watched this all happen within a span of several seconds. It felt like hours, gazing upon the group do a lazy bank in the air, blue trails of fire piling out from the boosters in the back of each vehicle, and on the bottom for Stork's case.

_These ain't no government vehicles, ain't no way, no how,_ Lupin thought with a slack-jawed expression. _No way they'd let a bunch of kids handle them, ain't no way in a million fuckin' years. _

They did a long circle around the sky, within easy sight of her of course, and she heard them whoop and holler as they came closing back down to the ground, and several feet before they touched down, three hundred feet down the back road from her, the wings and rockets ceased their function. All of them slammed to the ground, suspension bearing the brunt of the force of each vehicle's fall and they raced towards her. Aerrow at the lead, he stopped a few feet away from the grill of her Camaro, and she would have to admit, she somewhat didn't like the smug expression on his face. It was like he'd just flipped her onto her ass somehow and she thought, she just really got mentally fucked over and it was probably, metaphorically speaking, quite true.

The purring engines of the Skimmers and the Heliscooter and the little safety buggy abruptly cut off and then there was silence between them all. Lupin stared at the grinning, smug faces of all the Storm Hawks. Even Stork was giving her a sly and superior smile behind dark eyes and she felt herself suddenly floundering, out of her league.

"Impressed yet? Or do we have to show you just a little bit more?" Aerrow finally asked her and Lupin felt her mouth go cotton-dry, apprehensive of response.

However, she would not be one-upped on a verbal debate and she was able to at last crack a smile and she nodded. "I am…impressed." She said, before glancing over each face, and lastly, back to Aerrow. The real Aerrow. Her smile turned a little slyer and yet, a little more relaxed at the same time.

"Wanna talk over coffee?"

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

**So, there you have it, my precious little readers: A very new rewritten version of chapter one, or rather, a new prologue for **_**Insomnia**_**. Most likely I'll do this for every chapter, to get myself back into the groove and possibly change things and make them less…childish. Sort of. I'll get back on track for Insomnia, slowly but surely, I will!**

**Now, go, go and review, new young readers! As I've said before, I thrive off of them and require their delicious substance. Similar to how I survive solely off of coffee and three hours of sleep every day, but that's not important, now is it? Hehehe…**


	2. Over My Head

**Chapter One:  
****Over My Head**

**Reviewers (Wow, this got reviews?): **

**Apollo Pompano **

**Unleash the Shadow**

**Wicca in Training**

**Saerphe**

_**Disclaimer: **_**All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them.**

**Another completely revised chapter for y'all's entertainment, please enjoy. :3**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

_I've never been in over my head.  
_**-Irene Adler, _Sherlock Holmes _(2009 film) **

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

They were all gathered inside a Starbucks, currently wrapped in the yellow glow of the lights, everything touched with a warm effect. Lupin took a long draft of her coffee; savoring the sweet caramel flavor before setting her cup down and giving the six across from her a good, long stare. She studied them, scrutinizing them with sharp eyes. Being an artist had its advantages, she would admit. It helped bring to light certain things that people didn't see right away until it was pointed out. Not everyone was born with art skills, and Lupin considered herself lucky to have inherited such a skill in the first place…

Even if her biological father was a deadbeat who walked out on her when she was only an infant, but she wasn't going to go there. Simply thinking about him, and how he was trying to play a father almost twenty years too late made her angry beyond belief. Stifling it down, Lupin considered the figures before her once again, and now after studying them all, realized that Junko and Stork really weren't wearing makeup, really weren't…human. She was staring at two separate, humanoid species and she was in awe, to be quite frank.

_I'm the first,_ she thought somewhat narcissistically before berating herself. _Maybe not the first, okay, sure. But I'm certainly not going to be the last. _

Thoughts set aside, Lupin carefully began. "So…you're not from around here. Obviously. Your vehicles state that much; we aren't even close to flying cars yet, let alone motorcycles."

She tilted her head, carefully assessing her next words. "Where exactly are you from? And to put into paralleling aspects, you're in my world, my…planet, I suppose. Earth. And we have, currently, seven major continents and large bodies of water called oceans and seas that separate us. Our continent is called North America, and our certain section of land on North America is called California. We're located in the southern half, to further break it down. I'd show you a map, but, well…"

Aerrow gripped the cup of hot cocoa she'd purchased for him and the others. The only other one who enjoyed the taste of coffee was Piper, which she was currently sipping, watching her just as carefully as Lupin was watching them.

"We come from a world called Atmos. Our world doesn't have…continents, per say. We have annexed sections of land called terras, large cliffs and mountains that tower above the ground level, the Wastelands. It's nothing but lava lakes and fiery geysers down there. Only the toughest life forms can survive down there, so traveling in the Wastelands for _most_ people is a death sentence. The only way we can travel between terras is through air travel. We have flying vehicles of all sorts, but the ones Junko, Finn and myself are usually the most commonly seen ones, although they'll look different because of modifications."

At this, Aerrow gave a pause in his explanation and Lupin waited patiently before she nodded for him to continue, realizing he was waiting for confirmation. Radarr eyed her with leveled suspicion, although she was relieved that he was no longer eyeing her with that look saying he wanted to bite her again. Her hand was still somewhat sore and she rubbed at it absently as Aerrow continued.

"Unfortunately, we don't know how we ended up here. We can't really explain any of this, to be honest. And we don't know who to talk to about this. Do you have anyone you can take us to so we can…talk to them about this all?" He grinned at her in a hopeful manner, and Lupin, out of reflex, almost started laughing as the first thought came to mind: the government.

_Yeah, sure, the government will help…by locking y'all up, taking your vehicles apart and never letting you see the light of day ever again. I don't care who you are, you can't fight the government, not for long anyways._

She was sure that the government knew of things, many things, and covered them up to hide from the public eye. Something like this? Maybe they've encountered it, like in one of her favorite shows, _Fringe_. She couldn't help but compare the entire "parallel universe" shtick and wonder what would happen if the government ever got wind of this event, as it was happening here and now. Not even Halloween could stop them investigating, could it?

Uncertainty must have shown on her face, because the hopeful smile that Aerrow gave her slowly began to fade. Lupin pursed her lips and sighed, tapping her coffee cup several times on the table.

"No… No, there isn't anyone I can take you to, or trust, even, with your current situation. The government wouldn't help you. They'd probably lock you up and throw away the key for the rest of your lives." She eyed Stork and Junko, and even Radarr, somewhat guiltily. "You three would probably end up as experiments under the government's watch, in some bunker far from civilization. Your vehicles, and when it's found, your ship will be apprehended and taken apart for scientific observation. I'm not sure what else there would be to it, other than no one would ever see you again, from this world or yours. Our government…tends to cover up strange oddities. Hell, we probably have aircraft flying around right now that's twenty or thirty years more advanced than anything we have right now, and they won't release it to the public for another ten years. That's how secretive our government can be. I'm sure there're…other parts of it that deal with even more disturbing things."

She hesitated. She had no proof, and here she was spilling out only speculation. Then again, all those documentaries on the History, Science and Discovery channels often had speculative specials for things along these lines. Aliens, fringe science, secret experiments that went on years and years ago… She was plenty sure there was a lot more than that to consider.

A set of worried faces stared back at her, and she wilted, feeling a little ashamed, but held her composure and let her fingers steeple together. "I'm only…saying this is speculation, of course. There's no proof, but if the government wishes to cover something up, there won't be any evidence. I'm only giving fair warning to you because I don't want to have them barge in on my home and start interrogating me about you. Or worse, see you dragged off right in front of me. If it comes to that, that is."

Skeptical and perhaps even relieved expressions went around and Radarr eyed her with some newfound respect. She smiled a little at the blue-furred creature. Finn groaned loudly and at length and looked at her with a slightly childish pout.

"Are you serious? You mean to say if we, like, go flying and stuff, they'll swoop down on us like Cyclonians?"

Lupin carefully picked her next words. _No need to break down the fourth wall quite yet. Or ever, if I can manage it, that is._ She shook her head. "Not quite like that, but we have advanced technology that can track you down, from space or from radio waves or something like that. I know, it sounds weird, but it's true."

Raised brows and questioning faces gazed back at her and she heard Piper utter a quiet, "Wow, really?" Lupin nodded at her quiet inquiry. She took another long draft of her coffee, gladdened to have something to keep her alert and on her toes.

"Like I said…I have no proof, but I don't want to be one of those morons that follows the crowd blindly and think that the government doesn't lie to us. I'll bet an arm and leg, and probably win that bet, that the government lies. All the time. So…unfortunately, no, there isn't anyone I can take you to for help. Not in this world."

Again, the flaccid, disappointed looks read back to her and she bit her lip before taking a sip of her coffee to hide her face. When she composed herself, she set the cup down again and exhaled slowly through her nose.

"I'm not sure what else I can tell you…" She paused. "But…perhaps I can help you. Not, not with getting you back, I think you might possibly be on your own with that…but I can help you navigate through my world. Give you the lay of the land, perhaps, and pointers on what to do and not to do in this world. Like, for instance…riding your bikes without helmets, for one." She raised a brow and quipped a small smile at them. "That's a big no-no, and if you have any helmets, I suggest you get them sometime soon. You're not riding in the daytime without them, and we're pushing it at night right now."

"We'll see what we can scrape up. Maybe we can make do with something, since, well, we don't really own any helmets."

"No, no makeshift helmets like pots and pans. Real helmets. You'll end up on television for looking like morons and that's the last thing we need right now. I can probably see if we can't get you some helmets tomorrow."

Stork had, throughout the entire conversation, watched Lupin with mounting suspicion and snorted finally, teeth slightly bared, an eye twitching.

"And why should we believe anything you say, girly? For all we know you could be a spy for your…_government_…and have them somehow listening in on this conversation, and tracking us, like you've explained. For all we know, you'll end up throwing us in a cell and tossing the key away yourself! Leaving us to rot and be tortured mercilessly and—,"

"Stork, that's enough. I don't think she's a government spy. Besides, she looks too nice to be a spy." Aerrow gently, but firmly said to the Merb and Stork puckered his lips but said nothing more. Lupin was somewhat flattered by the trusting, if naively childish, smile and gaze Aerrow gave her, but she knew he probably wouldn't be smiling if he knew that she already knew about him. Stork simply continued to give Lupin that nasty, suspicious glare of his, eye occasionally twitching.

Lupin sighed. "I'm not a spy, all right?"

"That's what they all say."

Lupin glanced at Stork again, and Aerrow gave him another warning stare. Lupin's shoulders drooped a little and just thinking about it, her back started to ache.

"Yeah, but I'm working all the time and going to school too. The most fun I have is to go to the mall or occasionally go out with friends. I rarely have free time lately. I have two jobs, all right? Two jobs. And that's to pay for bills, classes, and school supplies. I don't think I'd be a good spy if I'm preoccupied with ten other things most of the time," Lupin added, laughing a little at the ridiculous accusation. _A spy, right. When I become a spy, Optimus Prime will be President of the United States and he'll merge all nations in the world together under a united banner._

The very thought made her giggle again and after she settled, she drank some more coffee, making a mental note to get another before they left.

"Look, I know this may seem rather preposterous, but—," Lupin slowly started, only to be interrupted by Piper.

"Not really. I mean, we come from a world where we use flying machines every day as part of our regular life, and you said yourself that your people haven't even mastered flying at all—,"

At this Lupin smoothly intercepted, shaking her head as she spoke, "No, what I said was we hadn't mastered flying _vehicles_. And I said earlier we have flying machines. Jets, helicopters, planes, and other flying machine models. Hell, we even put a man on the moon fifty years ago."

Piper's eyes, along with everyone else's, widened in surprise.

"On the moon? Yeah, they totally kicked our butts on that one," Finn declared, folding his arms across his chest. "We haven't done that in Atmos."

Lupin grinned a little. "Well, we had competition to beat. That's motivation enough. But, we're getting off track. I can try to help, but if you want to go your separate ways…I'll understand. Just…lay as low the ground as you possibly can, all right? I'm telling you this for a good reason. It may not look it, here and now, but out there, the world is full of people, beyond my government and country, who would use you in ways worse than my country. A lot worse. And while my country might feel hesitant on…killing prisoners…" Lupin paused, reluctant to continue. But she knew this warning had to be said. "Other countries wouldn't hesitate to shoot you down like a mangy dog. Just to get someone to obey. We can be…a pretty horrible race, to be honest."

There was a collective silence and even Finn's little grin had disappeared and was replaced by a look of disbelief. Junko's ears drooped a little and a somewhat smug satisfactory look appeared on Stork's face, as if to say, "I told you so". Piper grew stony-faced, while Aerrow gazed back with an indeterminate expression. Radarr looked on sadly, whimpering a little.

Lupin waited for a long while before she felt that she was no longer needed, she'd fulfilled her usefulness and made to stand, finishing off the last of her beverage.

"I'm sorry I'm not much more help, you guys. Really…I am." She reached over and patted Aerrow's hand before turning towards the door.

"Wait."

Lupin stopped, hand on the door, coffee cup having been disposed of in the trashcan beside the door. She craned her neck to look over at the six, and saw them standing, Aerrow approaching her. He was taller than her, by at least a foot, and was very lithe and lean. In the cartoon, he was depicted as gangly, but she didn't see that in the redheaded young man before her; she saw a fit, lightly toned youth, who stood up straight and had the undeniable qualities of a leader.

He gave her that diplomatic, if childish, grin and offered his hand to her.

"My name's Aerrow, leader of the Storm Hawks…and we'd be honored if you helped us out in any way you possibly can."

Lupin stared up at him in surprise, trying to read something in his face that just wasn't there. Amusement, perhaps, but instead she saw seriousness. The others were looking at her with hope, except for Stork. He was eyeing her with that same unhindered suspicion, but she knew he'd come around…eventually. Hopefully.

She turned her stormy blue-gray eyes back to the exceptionally bright green ones watching her and she gave him a smile before taking his hand into hers.

"My name's Lupin Hawkins. And it'd be an honor to help y'all out."

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

It wasn't a long trip back to her parents' home, perhaps less than ten minutes, if even five. One of her favorite aspects of her living situations was that she lived across the street from a cemetery. Many people would often do a double take on that and would thereafter comment on how creepy it was. Lupin didn't mind. It wasn't like she could see spirits or talk to the dead. She just thought it was kind of cool.

The house she pulled up to was a two-story structure, with three bedrooms and three bathrooms, and while the backyard wasn't large, it was spacious enough. The house had a three-car garage and Lupin's stepfather's '68 Camaro, which was unfortunately collecting dust, had permanently claimed one of the spaces. Lupin believed it to be a pity and a waste, but she could understand the situation. If she had a fully restored Camaro in that good a condition with less than two-thousand miles under its engine, she wouldn't want to drive it all that often either.

The kitchen, living room, and den were all decently sized, and a fourth bedroom downstairs had been long, long ago renovated, half of it into an office and the other half torn out and rebuilt to create a large aquarium filled with tropical fish, shrimp, and ocean plant life. To the side of the house, a portion of the backyard had been renovated into a parking space for an RV and a towing trailer, which would usually carry an assortment of quad vehicles and dirt bikes, and it would also double as an extra living space for herself and her siblings.

Lupin explained all this to the Storm Hawks as they followed her on her tour through the house. Radarr was especially interested in the aquarium; he was busy watching the little clownfish dart around.

"You don't have to worry about my parents or brother and sister, though…they're out on a camping trip," she continued before showing them to the living room once again. Finn and Junko immediately took the couch, sinking into the worn leather thing with contented sighs. Stork settled on an ottoman. Radarr was busy sniffing out the kitchen, while Piper and Aerrow settled on the couch as well. Lupin sighed as she looked around the room, head cocked the side, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"You know, you don't have to let us stay the night here…I mean, we can always come back in the morning."

Lupin shook her head. "Things will look different in the morning. Trust me when I say this. They will look different. Plus, I already told you, you need helmets to ride bikes. Not to mention, you need licenses and insurance, but well, we don't have time for that, really. No, just…hmmm."

At this train of thought, Lupin paused and stopped talking, hand on chin, brow furrowed, face indicating she was lost in thought. Then she sighed.

"How about this…we just use the big monster truck we have out front to travel, okay? It can hold all of y'all and me, so we'll be fine that way. We don't have to worry about helmets, then."

_Plus, I won't end up paying an arm and a leg for things they'll probably never use again when they go home…if they go home._

"That sounds fine to me. What about you guys, you in?"

There were collective nods and murmurs of agreement for transportation, although Stork remained largely quiet. He was eyeing everything in the room, from the kitchen dining table right next to him, to the fireplace, to the aquarium where Radarr was still viewing the fish flit about. Lupin reminded herself to feed the fish when she finished here.

"Okay, well, that's great. One thing checked off the list. Now, for another thing…your uniforms. I need you out of them."

"What, you want a strip tease?" Finn perked, giving her a lazy grin. Lupin resisted the urge to roll her eyes and stared back with an expression that clearly stated she wasn't amused. "No. We're going clothes shopping tomorrow. Quick and easy stuff, like jeans and t-shirts."

At this, Lupin eyed Piper and concluded the young woman was too tall to borrow anything Lupin wore, except for perhaps shirts. Pants were out of the question, and she doubted Piper was the same shoe size, either.

"What? What's wrong?"

"…Nothing, just trying to figure some shit out. I've got work tomorrow in the evening, too." Lupin gave pause and grinned a little. "At a bookstore, by the way. Maybe while I'm working, y'all can do some research?"

"Research? While we're still _alive_? Can't, like, Piper do that?" Finn whined in disbelief.

Piper threw a rather sharp glare at the unaware blonde and Lupin held back a snicker at the sight before clearing her throat. "It's best to have as many eyes looking out for something than to have none. I'll see if I can't get in the back and do some of my own research, so you won't be alone."

Junko shifted in his seat by Finn and looked to Lupin with slightly pleading eyes. "Umm…I don't mean to interrupt, but…you wouldn't happen to have something to eat? I'm really hungry."

He smiled sheepishly at the young woman with hopeful, puppy-dog eyes and Lupin couldn't help but inwardly gush at how adorable he was. Holding back her urge to actually gush, she grinned and nodded. "We got plenty of leftovers in the fridge, and I can whip up something real fast, too. Just…try not to eat everything. I can kinda tell you probably got a big appetite."

At this, Junko laughed and patted his stomach. "Oh, yeah, a really big one. But I'll keep it trimmed down, I promise."

Satisfied by the promise, Lupin turned to the kitchen, but stopped and looked to the TV. She noticed she would often get odd stares behind her and she figured out why, in some ways. She began turning it on, and out of the corner of her eye, noticed the mounting curiosity and wide-eyed awe as the big-screen began to turn on. She switched the channel over to Discovery, secretly in glee that _Mythbusters_ was playing.

"And now, for something different…enjoy these crazy motherfuckers as they blow shit up…_for science_."

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The rest of the night passed with little to no incident. Most of the leftovers were finished off, courtesy of Junko, although it left with plenty of dishes to clean off. Aerrow offered to help, but she waved if him off. As much as she didn't like doing the dishes sometimes, it was her territory, and she preferred doing it alone. It was a thing she had.

But, she was glad that dinner had gone well enough. While she had been cooking, and reheating leftovers in the microwave, she heard shouts and whoops and loud cries of "YES, DO IT, DO IT!" from all the Storm Hawks. Even Stork was in elation at the show she'd put on. _Oh, yes. I put on a good choice. Who _doesn't_ like _Mythbusters_? Who doesn't like watching shit get blown up in the name of science?_

After dinner, Lupin settled down and slowly explained things when she was directed questions. Who were these people, what was their point to their show? When she told them to hush and listen, they did, and questions were answered easier that way. When Lupin put on a movie, she would let them read the movie summary. _Transformers_ was on and luckily, they caught it at the beginning. Lupin explained, very briefly the history on the original show, the different remakes, and the new Bay movies that were out, including the second _Transformers_.

"You seem to know an awful lot about this show," Piper had mentioned near the beginning of the movie and Lupin couldn't help but release the Cheshire cat grin.

"Yeaaaah…call me a nerd if you want, but I'm really into this stuff. I love this fandom. So much so…" Lupin stood and stripped her jacket, showing she was wearing a spaghetti strapped shirt and she turned, baring her back. The symbol of the good guys, the Autobots, on television, was imprinted on Lupin's back, the traditional color of red colored between the solid black lines. "That I got this tattoo not that long ago. Go ahead and laugh, I don't care."

"That's actually pretty cool."

Lupin shrugged her jacket back on, feeling slightly cold and wondered if she should turn the thermostat up. "I thought so. My parents, though…they had a shit fit. My mother more than anybody, and my grandmother, well…she wasn't happy either."

After that, the conversation died as they all settled to watch the movie. Occasionally, however, Lupin was once more the one to field questions and she quietly answered. During periods of silence, however, Lupin swore she heard Stork muttering about an inevitable invasion and the "machines on the screen" would probably destroy them all.

The mention of it at all made her stop to think. _If these guys are real…I wonder what other worlds we call entertainment might be real?_ She pondered over this for a while, distracted from watching the movie, right at the point where Megatron revived from his frozen prison in the Hoover Dam bunker.

After the film, Lupin began fielding sleeping arrangements. And after a headache of finding extra sheets and blankets and pillows, she managed to squeeze everyone upstairs, minus using her parents' bedroom. The couches downstairs were occupied by Junko and Finn, Aerrow and Stork took Lupin's brother's bedroom, with Radarr curled in a blanket nest on the floor and Piper was bunked with Lupin.

"Are you sure you want to give me your bed? I mean…as long as you don't mind…"

Lupin had waved off her worries and began finishing her makeshift bed on the floor.

"I'm fine; just don't step on me on your way to the bathroom, okay? Otherwise, relax and don't worry."

The younger woman looked at Lupin with a slightly distressed expression, as if something was bothering her to no ends and she didn't know how to voice it. She fidgeted a little, and Lupin waited a few moments before speaking up. "If something's on your mind, you can tell me. I'm here to help, remember?"

Piper lifted her eyes to meet Lupin's and she sighed finally, collapsing onto the bed.

"Believe me when I say this…we've been through a lot in our world. We've got a dictator to worry about trying to take over our world, and several psychopath henchmen working under her, including a former Sky Knight. Sky Knights are supposed to protect Atmos, and we've already had several betray us. We got some back, but still…if we aren't there, or able to get back, I have to wonder what will become of our home?"

Lupin's face fell and melted into a bland expression as she carefully studied the distressed young woman.

"I know Aerrow doesn't look like it…but he's really worried about Atmos too. He's one of the few, if only person, who can take on the Dark Ace. And he's pretty bad news, if you catch my drift." She paused, wringing her hands. "I'll see if I can't get any more information from my books on the _Condor_, but…hearing that we came to a different world…it's a bit shocking, really."

Again, Piper turned her eyes up to Lupin, and the older woman shifted her weight, feeling somewhat uncomfortable with the conversation. But then again, who would feel comfortable with it at all? She felt frozen, rooted to her spot before she forced her legs to move and she sat down by Piper carefully and wrapped an arm around the young woman's shoulders.

"I'm not going to sit here and make y'all any promises about this whole thing. Promises like, I'll personally make sure you get home or anything like that, but I can promise to help as best I can, in any way I can that's within my power. It's not much, considering I'm just a lowly community college student, but hey, it's better than nothing, right?"

The last bit had intended to be an attempt at light humor, and Piper smiled a bit before she gave Lupin a more serious look.

"Why are you helping us, anyways? You don't know anything about us, and well…I don't know; you seem to trust us a bit...too much." At this, Piper narrowed her eyes.

Lupin felt that stare penetrate her, before she was able to throw up defenses, shooting down chances of allowing anything to show. How could Lupin explain to these kids that they were nothing more than a television show here in her world, made up characters, fictional ones at that? How could she tell them that everything they knew was nothing but a lie, a created world by a bunch of people from her world?

_I can't,_ she finally reasoned. _I can't tell them. I have to keep it secret._

With her resolve in place, Lupin shook her head and dropped her arm, placing it in her lap.

"Sometimes…people get that strong feeling to trust someone. And I'm getting that vibe, that gut feeling, with y'all. Yeah, at first I thought you were just kids dressed for Halloween, and then kids who probably escaped a loony bin…but when I saw y'all flying…" Lupin shook her head again. "I know for a fact no government branch, none, would let a bunch of kids use new technology like that, they have people with years of experience, like pilots, handle that. What other explanation could there be? We don't have anything like what ya'll got, so…I started trusting my gut instead of listening to my head."

Lupin smiled at Piper, hoping her deflecting answer would appease the young woman. Slowly, she saw the slight hardness in Piper's eyes soften and then completely crumble away. Piper smiled, seemingly satisfied by Lupin's answer and she reached over, squeezing Lupin's hand.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Later that night, as Lupin was lying awake on her makeshift bed on the floor, she stared at the ceiling, her thoughts in overdrive. She wasn't even paying attention to her music in her ears; she simply lay there, blinking occasionally in the dark room.

_What am I going to do? What the fuck was I thinking earlier? I mean, come on. How am I supposed to help them get home, anyways? I don't exactly have waaaay above average intelligence to be building a portal home for them. Not to mention, this ain't exactly supernatural central, it's not like we have goblins and demons coming through here using portals every week...or anywhere else, for that matter. Tch. You were an _idiot_, Loopy, an _idiot_ beyond belief to take this on._

She groaned to herself, closing her eyes tightly, hands on her face. "_Fuuuck_, what am I gonna _do_?" she whispered to herself.

After a while, she began assessing what she had going on the next several days. She had work tomorrow evening, at Borders. That was Monday. Tuesday, she had class, and then the rest of the day off, and later that day, there was that group ice skating she had going with her friends in the evening. Wednesday, class in the morning, a class in the afternoon and then work in the evening. Thursday, class again, evening was free and she would most likely be using that free time to finish packing, so she could move out. Friday night was her last evening working that week. She'd asked her boss from her second job for the weekend off so she could help out with the Halloween party on Saturday night.

Saturday…that was the biggest event she was looking forward to. It was Halloween on Saturday. First a little trick-or-treating and then, then she would have the party she and her friends have been wanting for years. One of her friends had an uncle who owned a warehouse in town, and it was sizeable enough to post props and a party all in one place. Just thinking about it made her ecstatic, although she thought of the Storm Hawks and suddenly felt a snag in her plans.

_I can't just drag them along…and I can't just leave them to their own devices._ Quick memories of their adventures rolled through her head and she grimaced. _Yeah, I definitely can't leave them alone here. I don't want to come back and find my house burnt to the ground._

She sighed heavily again, feeling as though it was the hundredth time within the hour of her simply lying awake. _Well…it couldn't hurt to ask if they'd like to come along. It never hurt to ask, right? _

She rolled over onto her side, still feeling wide awake and even after her mind finally fell quiet, her body was far from tired and she lay awake almost the entire night, simply waiting for sleep to come to her.

_I'm way in over my fucking head..._

**OoOoOoOoOoO**


	3. Misbehave

**Chapter Two:  
Misbehave**

**Reviewers: **

**Unleash the Shadow**

**CaelanBall**

**Saephre **

**Eldonyx**

**Apollo Pomano **

**Wicca in Training**

**Assassin of the Shadows**

_**Disclaimer: **_**All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them.**

**Chapter two, revised.**

**A big thank you to _CaelanBall_, your review left me with a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. :)**

…**And scrambled eggs and ketchup go well together. That is all. **

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

___I aim to misbehave._  
**-Captain Mal, _Serenity _**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Someone was shaking her awake. Or, at the very least, attempting to wake her. However, when the fresh brewing smell of coffee swept up into her nose, Lupin's eyes snapped open, her body jolted up and she was greeted by a smiling Piper with a mug of coffee in her hand, practically with Lupin's name on it. Well, not entirely. It was really a mug of a cartoon from the creator of the _Simpsons_, a speech bubble proclaiming, "_Work is hell_" on it. Aptly put, if Lupin was any judge, as she reached for the mug.

"I thought that might get your attention. Breakfast's nearly done."

Lupin nodded dumbly, sipping her coffee—_a perfect combination of sugar and creamer, how did she know, oh, God, I love her already_—and then she stopped, mid-sip, hot coffee pressing against her lips. Lupin quirked a brow behind her mug, slurped loudly and tucked the mug away for a moment.

"…Breakfast."

She smiled and nodded. "Breakfast." She replied affirmatively. "I hope it's all right that we kind of commandeered your kitchen. We'll pay you back…somehow."

Lupin kept the quirked expression for a moment longer before she shrugged her shoulders and took another drink of her coffee before standing. Piper stood along with her.

"Eh. Don't worry about it. I don't eat breakfast all that often. This is my lifeblood. Besides art. I swear to you, ink and coffee run in my veins, not blood. I bleed caffeine and ink." That comment alone elicited a peal of laughter from Piper and she was smiling nice and wide. Lupin grinned along with her, pleased her joke had gotten a positive reaction.

"Come on, let's go eat. I smell eggs and if they're scrambled, I'm using ketchup."

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

"I noticed that you got some boxes in your room. Are you going somewhere?"

The question threw Lupin off guard and she paused in scooping up her food and shoveling it into her mouth to look at Aerrow.

She found it a strange, strange sight to behold. Here she was, in her home, having breakfast with a set of fictional characters, who were by default, a bunch of children younger than her. And yet, they've probably done more than her in their short time as Sky Knights than she's done her whole life. She felt strangely disturbed further by the fact that she was hiding the fact that they weren't technically real in her world, and again, she pondered briefly over the possibilities of other fandoms truly existing beyond her world.

It passed quickly, the thought squirreled away for later observation and Lupin shrugged nonchalantly and shoved her eggs into her mouth. _I can freak out later. Right now, I have food and coffee._

"I'm moving out. You know, spreading my metaphorical wings and flying from the nest," she answered after she finished swallowing and then took a drink from her coffee. "I got a house with some friends, and we're splitting bills up. Main rent's done up in about four parts, utilities are paid individually, and niceties like cable and Internet also split like rent. We start paying in November."

She got strange stares and she paused in eating, looking between the faces staring at her strangely.

"What?"

"What do you mean, bills? You…don't live for free?"

She almost snorted and _almost _told them straight off, a big hell no. But then she remembered quite vividly that they didn't have to worry about those kinds of things. She frowned a little and tried to think of a reasonable way to explain it. She sighed.

"Well…no. The rent is to go to the people who own the house, or to a rental agency. The utilities are to make sure we don't get the water or electricity is turned off because we forgot to pay for it. The cable is just a nice thing to have so we can watch more than just basic television and the Internet; well…it's a necessity for most of our schoolwork. It's just something our government has us do, I guess. Everybody needs to get paid one way or another, and the money we dish out, it's distributed to the people we pay. I think."

_Why didn't I ever pay attention in economy class? I think we covered these things. More importantly, how in the hell did I even manage to pass it? Oh, right. Bullshitting. Brilliant._

She was still given the odd looks and she felt the need for a subject change. _Time to play dumb. _

"So…how is it that you power your bikes? I mean, do y'all have oil or gasoline to power them, or are they electric?"

In an instant, she saw the life of the party return and a few glances to Piper's direction had Lupin looking at her expectantly.

"No, we don't use…gasoline and they aren't electric…not really, anyways. They do have to be oiled, of course, but the main power source is crystals." The way she said it, it was almost, well, mystical. Lupin raised a brow. Even hearing it aloud, she felt, well…strangely in need of proof. She'd seen on the show, of course, but…to know that their vehicles were really powered by naturally formed geological gemstones…

"Crystals? We have those too, but I don't think they could power my coffee maker if I stuck it in there."

"Well, maybe your world just doesn't know how to harness them." Piper laughed and gave Lupin a teasing wink, to which Lupin smirked a little with a soft snort. "But, in all seriousness, there are many types of crystals in our world. Fuel crystals, engine crystals, cloning crystals, cooking crystals…there are plenty of them and most of them have useful functions. Most of them."

There were sheepish and knowing smiles all around, and secretly, Lupin was in on the joke as well. Not that they knew. Not that they'll ever know. Keeping her face neutral, or at the very least, partially confused, Lupin listened as Piper continued while they all finished off their breakfast. When they had all cleared their dishes, they were piled into the sink, with the unspoken promise that they would be cleaned later on and Lupin quickly detoured the conversation again.

"All right, everyone…quick scheming time. You're in costume, all of you. Yes, you too, Stork, don't give me that look, okay? We can't let people on about who or what you really are. Call it identity protection from the men in black."

"Men in black?" Finn repeated, brows raised, questioning expression on his face.

"Er. Wrong people. They're a group of government officials who supposedly deal with alien activity on Earth. I'm thinking of someone else, can't remember who they're called. But, I'll give you details on the men in black and Area Fifty-One later on if you're interested. Really interested stuff I found at work when I got bored one day."

"Area Fifty-One? What's that?" Junko's interest indeed looked peaked and in order to save time, and explain at the same time, Lupin began hunting for the keys that went to the family Yukon.

"It's…a place in Roswell, New Mexico where there's supposedly a secret government bunker where they keep the fallen ships and recovered dead bodies of extraterrestrials from outer space. The men in black—_aha_, there you are, you little fuckers! Anyways, the men in black are these people who deal with the living aliens who supposedly live or visit earth. And, speculation continues to say, that when people who have had direct contact with these aliens, these men in black come and erase people's memories."

Lupin gave pause in her little story, jingling the keys in her hand, checking her inventory of necessary items: cell phone, house keys, wallet…iPod.

"But, whatever the case may be, we ordinary citizens will probably never know. I personally think that the masses would panic and the overzealous religious nutcases would go even nuttier and start preaching the end of the world or something. Ready to go?"

They followed her out and she locked up the house behind her before leading them to the Yukon. It was a monstrous vehicle, although Lupin reassured them that other vehicles could get even bigger.

"Like actual monster trucks. They're used for entertainment purposes. I don't think you'll find any on the streets though. Not here, anyway."

Then they were off, and no, it certainly wasn't off to see a Wizard of Oz. Although, Lupin sort of wished there was someone like that she knew. That would just be cool and convenient.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

"Hey, Lupin…you were talking about something called Halloween. What is it, exactly?"

_What am I, Wikipedia all of a sudden?_

Lupin wisely chose not to voice her comment and instead thought of a decent answer.

"Halloween was…well, it still is, a celebration of the dead, called _'All Hallow's Eve'_. It goes back a few centuries, although nowadays it's the one night of the year where you can dress up in costumes as just about anything, go door-to-door and get free candy."

"Free candy? Oh, I am _so_ down! Chick-_chaaa!_"

Finn bounced in his seat with Junko, who was also joining in on the little celebration. Stork was the unfortunate and literal middleman between the two. Aerrow and Piper, Lupin saw from the rearview mirror, exchanged knowing glances and smiles to one another about it.

"Well, it's also a time of the year, which is October, by the way, to have parties, carve pumpkins, and build haunted houses for the occasion. October is my favorite time of year; there's definitely plenty of horror and gory movies to go around."

The exit was coming up, and Lupin had to wait for a bumbling Nissan Altima to move up in order to get over. She gripped the steering wheel with slight annoyance and narrowed her eyes at the driver, muttering under her breath.

"Goddamn Altimas. I _hate_ Altima drivers."

Putting road rage aside, it was a quick exit and a red light, a couple back alley turns and a parking lot full of cars later; they were being led to a large outlet store, ironically called Target.

Finn looked at the symbol and he snorted back his laughter. "It _looks _like a big target, that's what it looks like. Am I right?" He nudged Junko and the Wallop grinned wide and nodded.

"It does, doesn't it?"

"Feel like target practice, big guy?"

Junko laughed again, and Finn mimicked a gun and pointed it at the sign. "Pew, pew, pew…"

"Hey, guys, hurry up or you'll get left behind!" Aerrow called to the two lingering youths.

When they caught up, they were up to the door, and a few short steps later, inside the retail store. Lupin was thoroughly familiar with the store, and was often in with her mother or during her lunch breaks on weekends. Taking a cart and leaning on it, she lazily maneuvered it away from its basket brethren and motioned to be followed.

"So, the women's department is like, right there, so we can stop by there first and…where'd Finn and Junko go?"

Aerrow, Piper and Radarr all looked around with her, while Stork peered at a stand of Halloween candy with their colorful logos suspiciously.

"…I think we lost them."

"How? We just walked in the front door with them!"

"…Really bad luck?"

Piper sighed and a hand drifted up to pinch the bridge of her nose while Radarr rolled his eyes, ears drooping slightly as he growled. Aerrow gave the area one last sweep with his eyes.

"Let's just see if we can't find them on our way down the list. We'll need to get this done as quickly as possible."

A plan formed, they set out, following beside the shorter young woman. Stork trailed behind, stooped shouldered and eyed several passersby with that same mistrustful gleam in his eye. Grumbling, he turned away from the sight.

"_This_ is why I never leave the _Condor_," he muttered to no one in particular as he slowly, but surely trailed after the others, ignoring the odd looks he gained from others.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

After they finished gathering clothing for Stork, Aerrow and Piper, they set off to find the dynamic duo that was Finn and Junko. They soon found them bolstering around the electronics department, in awe at the video games. Lupin wasn't sure, and couldn't remember, if they had video games in Atmos…

_Probably not,_ she mused after watching their amazed expressions.

Junko was the first to notice them approaching and he instantly grinned like a happy loon, and waved them over. Curious, the other Storm Hawks joined up and soon they were all enraptured at the demo games on display. Lupin watched them from a distance, feeling as though she was once more watching from a television screen, no longer in reality. It lasted for a few minutes before the trance broke and she moved closer.

Stork eyed her beadily as she approached and he stepped from the group—the black sheep, she always considered him. He was the unfortunate outcast, and yet the interesting one at the same time. She found him just fascinating, mostly due to his constant paranoia. _Oh, he would enjoy all the doomsday prophecies they've got out and the zombie survival forums online,_ Lupin thought, hiding a grin as he approached.

He approached her, like one would approach a caged, but still rather enraged tiger. She found it odd how wary he was around her; it wasn't like she was about to go psycho on him and jump his ass. She waited patiently until he was close enough. He sneered at a couple passing by and the woman gasped before pushing her basket a little faster, muttering loud enough for both her and Stork to hear, "Halloween freak," as she moved on. The man cursed.

"Oh, go fly a freakin' kite, ya bitch," Lupin called after them and the woman looked back, sneering. Lupin flipped her the bird. "Yeah, keep walking, bitch, keep walking. Don't ruin the holiday for the rest of us, just cause you don't like it!"

Stork watched as the couple passed by and when they had gone, bitchiness and all, he looked to Lupin. There was another gleam in his eye, aside from the wariness. Lupin suspected it might have been a small amount of respect, but she wasn't sure.

Then Stork's lips upturned into the thinnest of smiles, and he arched a brow at her.

"So…you're the one who's going to be helping us get back. If we get back, that is…as long as we don't fall victim to the rotting organ disease or even a brain virus that melts us from the inside out. Who knows, maybe we'll become prey to some blood-sucking monster and be left for dead in the woods. I don't really see us going home, in the end, to be frank." He seemed to assess Lupin's reaction, and after a long moment of staring at one another, he gave a hissing sigh and leaned on the cart.

"What is your game, exactly? Helping us like a good citizen of your world should? No one just adjusts as quickly as you have to this sort of ordeal. At least, no one should be this open." He narrowed his eyes at her, one corner twitching, the mistrust visible once more. She chafed under that dark gaze, feeling uncomfortable with being interrogated like she was? What was she supposed to say, exactly…?

Lupin thought for a while and finally said, "Walk with me."

They slowly ambled down some aisles, passing by toiletries and then the pharmacy. She thought a little longer on what to say and she finally decided to go with the truth.

"I don't know why I'm not freaking out. Maybe it's because I read too many books or watch too many shows and movies that…pertain to otherworldly crossings, parallel universes, and mingling peoples, I guess. I always thought it would be…well, to be very blunt about it, cool, if that happened to me or my town at the very least. I guess I try to be as open as possible to things, although concepts of religious belief and God…yeah. No. I'm atheist on that one."

Stork was quiet while Lupin piled some items into her cart when they pulled into another aisle. Shampoo, conditioner, body wash. They moved on.

"It's probably a piss-poor excuse, but maybe I'm not adjusted yet. I haven't hit shellshock yet, maybe." She shrugged as she swung around the next aisle. Lupin glanced over her shoulder to the electronics aisle and saw that the others were still huddled around the games. "But, whatever it's worth, I'm still going to help you as best I can. I hope you'll at least accept it."

A set of razors went into the cart next. Stork grimaced, not wanting to know what use she had for those. Finally he cleared his throat and looked at her square in the face.

"I suppose I can accept your apology. I did have my doubts, and I still do, but I'm sure that you have adequate knowledge on how your world is supposed to work. And again, I suppose we don't have much choice but to trust you. If we don't, we might end up in a gruesome fate, but then again, we could be headed towards it anyways, with or without your help."

Lupin felt relieved that he at least proposed he accepted her help. It was a nice moment; peaceful, even, and she was reminded again as to why she liked the guy, in a platonic and friendly manner.

But, then the moment was almost immediately terminated when they stopped short at the end of the aisle, just across the movies when a flash of blue, tan, maroon, blonde and red streaked past them. The figures were laughing and cheering at the top of their lungs. It was then that both a very freaked out Stork and perplexed Lupin peeped their heads down the aisle—when they both deemed it safe—to see Junko's back to them, pushing what Lupin assumed was a cart, and with Finn in it, assuming the boyish laugh that she recognized as Finn's voice coming from in front of Junko.

Lupin and Stork then looked over to see Piper and Aerrow, along with Radarr sitting on Aerrow's shoulder, staring down the store. In one hand, Piper had a book propped open, and the other placed over her face in embarrassment. Aerrow watched with slight amusement, a smile creasing his lips. Radarr shook his head, watching, ears drooped along his head.

Stork and Lupin then exchanged a set of glances.

Finally, Lupin said, "I'm not cleaning up this mess."

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

**I'm not a big fan of Altimas. I usually end up behind them, and the drivers always drive so fucking slow. And I hate it with a passion, especially when they're in the fast lane, and doing less than the speed limit. Or they're on the streets and going ten miles under the speed limit and won't let you pass. I just...don't like Altimas. Or maybe it's the drivers who drive the Altimas. Either way...I don't like Altimas. Don't hold it against me, I have my reasons.**


	4. Working On It

**Chapter Three:  
Working On It**

**Reviewers: **

**Wicca in Training**

**Saerphe **

**Defectivebrainstorm **

**Assassin ****of the Shadows**

**Storm Blix **

**Eldonyx **

**Apollo Pomano**

_**Disclaimer: **_**All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them.**

**Chapter three, revised as well. **

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

_There's nothing more elusive than an obvious fact.  
_**-Sherlock Holmes, **_**Sherlock Holmes**_** (2009 film)**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Lupin was aware of several things at once. One, she was extremely mortified at the sight that had just passed her by, and the situation she was currently in right now: Junko and Finn had been caught by the security in Target. The second thing she noticed was how amused she was at the same time as her mortification. The double-edged blade of things made her wonder which one was she more of, and how long would it be before she snuck out in shame or burst into laughter right there on the floor. After debating with herself, and looking at the mixed expressions on the others' faces, Lupin decided it was time to push aside both and take responsibility for it all.

She was able to convince security that the Finn was her younger brother and Junko was his friend. She was able to convince them that she was watching them both while all their parents were away on a cruise, and that _she_ was in charge (much emphasis on this one) of them both. After a mind-boggling hour, she was able to get them both under her wing, purchase her things, and leave with a cart and two young teens walking beside her, a security officer watching them with close scrutiny at the register, from the door, to the parking lot. All the while, she was muttering to Finn, mostly, and every once in a while to Junko, her previous humor now lost to her embarrassment.

"How could you do that, I told you that you needed to be incognitos—,"

"Incognitos? That's just a fancy word for—," Finn started to interrupt, only to be silenced into submission by the angry older woman.

"Lying low! Yes! Exactly! How could you _convince_ him to tag along like that, Junko? I mean, seriously! All of you were fine at the video games, I could deal with y'all bouncing around like hyperactive puppies, but _where_ did you get the cart?"

Lupin felt like a nagging mom, or at the very least, a very angry older sister. Either one would have worked. After a while, she felt her anger fumes slowly peter out, and she didn't receive anymore snappy comebacks. When she finally fell into silence after loading the trunk with the purchases, she saw Piper trying to hide a smile. Stork had half a smirk going on. Aerrow was giving Junko and Finn sort-of-smiles, but had that look that told them that they also sort-of-had-it-coming, too.

While Lupin was taking the cart to its designated drop-off area in the parking lot, she saw Aerrow pull the two aside, speaking to them. She stopped to watch from afar, her intrigue and interest perked, despite her still-cooling temper. Slowly, she saw the two gather up life back again and they were grinning and laughing once more. Aerrow joined in before he noticed Lupin simply standing them across the way and he waved at her.

"Hey, hurry up, we can't go anywhere without you!"

That kick started her and Lupin nodded a few times automatically and came back to the Yukon, suddenly feeling calmer and less agitated with the two grinning in the back seat.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

They sat around Lupin's living room, after having dropped off everything, wondering what to do next. Stork suggested several times on going back to the _Condor_, with enthusiasm. After much debate on the whole situation (Lupin was somewhat against it, reminding them that helmets were a must, it was broad daylight, police could see them easier, and several other points that further solidified her argument), Piper was the one who suggested they all go back to the _Condor_. Together. Including Lupin.

She stared at the amiable faces, and the practically "I'm spilling with secret joy" face of Stork. She couldn't help but stare, still reeling from the suggestion.

"Wait…so, wait." She said slowly, catching attention now. "You want me…to come with you, up to your ship. Am I hearing this correctly?"

"Well, yeah, I mean…you're the only one who knows how to drive your car, and you don't want us on the streets…" Aerrow answered amicably, although Lupin sensed she could hear a hint of disappointment. He didn't seem to like the idea of being grounded, so to speak. "And you don't have work until later tonight, right? So, we'll have the time to kill."

For a while, the older woman sat there, mulling over what he said, and realized that he was right. There was nothing better to do for the better part of the day, other than an art project she had due for later that week. But, she still felt uncomfortable with this proposition. They hardly knew her and yet they were welcoming her too warmly for her own comfort, letting their guards down around her, showing her something that she felt that she didn't deserve to see. _Not with what I know about y'all, anyways,_ she thought a little bitterly.

"Besides, I still have some research to do, remember? We have to go back to the _Condor _to get my books," Piper added while Lupin was in thought. She looked to the young woman, who smiled so easily at her. _So naïve, all of you…_ Lupin thought, although it wasn't in an unkindly manner.

However, she did see the truth in their arguments. She didn't see it a good road to travel, with no pun intended, if they drove their own vehicles, without proper riding gear. Not to mention, they were rather…conspicuous. It'd garner too much attention, if they were caught. That could lead to bad juju, in the end.

She sighed, shoulders dropping slightly and nodded finally in consent. "I guess so. But, where exactly is your ship? It's not…anywhere conspicuous, is it? Like, in view of the public?"

"No, of course not!" Piper laughed. She motioned vaguely in the direction of the mall and added, "It's in the mountains!"

"…Mountains?"

"Don't worry, we found a few trails that led us down to your streets. It's paved," she added the last bit when she saw Lupin's eyes widening at the word 'trails', smiling reassuringly. Lupin's heart calmed. She wasn't sure if the Yukon, as big and sturdy as it was, could handle dirt trails. It was a rather heavy vehicle and could flip on its side or back if a turn is taken too sharply. She didn't want to think of a dirt trail.

_But a paved road…?_ That seemed a little suspicious. And if it checked out, she wondered who used it…

Then she remembered, sometimes her valley was used for shooting background scenes in television shows. It could be one of those kinds of roads.

Whatever the case, however, Lupin slowly pushed it from her mind as she slowly got up and said, "Well, if we're going to go, let's get it over with now, I suppose. Before I have to go to work."

"Road trip!" Junko crowed, and he and Finn threw fists into the air before scrambling towards the front door, jabbering away. Lupin stared after them.

"It's…it's just up the road. Not up the state."

"Just ignore them and let them have their fun. Put on some music and they'll be fine," Piper consoled, patting Lupin on the shoulder. With a sigh, Lupin only nodded and traipsed after the Storm Hawks, once again saying farewell to her house and saying hello to whatever lay ahead of her and the others.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The _Condor_, Lupin thought, was beautiful. Even if it looked run down and had probably seen much better days, she still thought its gleaming hide was still beautiful to look at. A new ship might catch her eye, but to Lupin, she had a thing for older things. If her car wasn't statement enough, than having several older gaming systems and preferring shows from the eighties and nineties could probably help her out.

Stork was practically in a euphoric state by the time she stopped and he was the first to somehow, push his way from the back wedged between Finn and Junko, and make it out the door before anyone else had their seatbelts off. All of them stared, some of them amused, others bemused, as Stork happily latched himself onto the _Condor_ and gave a few adoring pats before the Skimmer bay platform began to lower and he hopped right inside.

Lupin watched this for a few moments before cutting the Yukon's engine.

"Someone's excited," she commented offhandedly. Aerrow chuckled.

"You have no idea."

_Oh, yes, I do, have an idea_. Lupin mentally retorted, hiding a knowing smile to herself as she hopped out from the driver's seat. As soon as she hit the ground, however, she hesitated, and stared at the _Condor_ for a little longer, suddenly reluctant to move from her spot, to even consider getting on the ship. Then, at curious stares and a quick beckon from Piper, Lupin's feet mechanically followed.

"Jesus H. Christ…" she muttered to herself, falling under the cooling shade of the _Condor_. And then she was suddenly touching base with the lowered platform, following up into the interior. She smelled oil, dust, and something electric just seemed to fill the air. Off to the side, she noted, as she continued to follow Aerrow and Piper, towards the door that led further inside, there was another Skimmer. Panels were stripped off, its innards exposed, as though a surgeon was preparing to operate on its delicates.

"Oh, that?" Aerrow suddenly interrupted her thoughts. "That's an extra Skimmer we keep around. Usually Finn rides it, just in case his first doesn't break down. His gets a lot of…wear and tear, if you catch my drift."

"Not the best flyer?" Lupin quipped.

"Or fighter," Piper added. Up ahead, Finn shouted something at them, an indignant comment of some sort. Lupin snorted back her laughter and was led into a corridor that was rather clean and shiny. She couldn't help but look, despite herself.

_I'm really inside the Condor,_ she thought, excited. As they went, Piper commented on the repair bay, a blacksmith room, and Piper's darkroom, where she nurtured maturing crystals to their full potential. That was on the lower decks. The upper decks were where the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedrooms, and the bridge lay. An observation deck was just outside the bridge. When they came to the upper decks, everyone had split up immediately. Piper took Lupin aside and brought her to her room.

The first thing Lupin noticed when she entered Piper's room was the crystals, and the books. They were lying just about anywhere, wherever there was space. On her bed, the bookcase, her desk, there were crystals and books. It sort of reminded Lupin of her own room, as far as the books part was concerned. Lupin's eye was caught by a particularly bright blue one and she moved towards it, curious.

"Oh, wow…they're really…pretty," she muttered. They really _were _bright and shiny. Piper turned to look at her, a comment on her lips before she gasped.

"Don't touch that one!" She suddenly exclaimed, blocking Lupin's path. From a drawer on her desk, Piper extracted a leather glove and pulled it on, before picking it up, quick as a wink. The crystal continued to glow its cheery blue color. "It's a paralyzer crystal. I was studying it before, well…we came here. I forgot to put it away. If you touch it, you'll, well...the name says everything. You'll be paralyzed and for quite a while, too. Can't have that, now can we?"

She extracted a leather pouch from another drawer and deposited the crystal inside it, then put the pouch in the drawer, along with the glove. Piper sighed.

"Sorry about that. Anyway, I brought you here because I thought you could help with some research. I mean, you already know Finn might not be much help."

Lupin smirked a little and rolled her eyes. "Ya think?"

Piper smiled, relieved, and motioned to her bookcase. Several crystals, Lupin noted, were being used as bookends. She thought it amusing to no end. Piper extracted three books and after a moment's thought, a fourth.

"These are historical books that I would think we could find the most information in. Here," she said, handing the two top books to Lupin.

"We can start now, and when we leave, we'll get back together and start again later on."

Lupin was already delving into the first one, flipping through the first few pages to the index and from there, went skimming through the book. Piper followed suite. Time passed, although neither of them knew how long. Lupin's vision soon began to blur and water before she rubbed at them tiredly and looked at her watch. It was nearly time for her to get to work, she noticed tiredly. _Maybe I should call in sick…_she thought, frowning slightly.

Then she saw something, a name and a passage of interest. It disappeared into the sea of words and Lupin ended up reading nearly the entire page before finding it again. She began reading, getting a little excited, hoping it was worth the effort of finding it all over again.

'_Walter Drake: scientist, explorer, and discoverer of many terras known today, including those that belong to the Merbs and the Wallops. He was a crystal chemist and geologist, studying the wondrous growing, living and decaying rate of crystals.' _

The passage continued on about Walter Drake and his career and successes. Something that surprised her was that he'd known some of the original Sky Knights, including the Storm Hawks. It was somewhat starting to bore her until she came to the last sentence of the paragraph.

'_He was beloved by all, passionate to all he met…until he mysteriously disappeared without a trace, as if into thin air.' _

The next passage was short and sweet, pertaining to theories. One particular theory stuck out from the rest.

'_Some say he somehow crossed over to the other side of Atmos. Others, however, believe he'd somehow fallen through a portal and was whisked away to another dimension, another world. Whatever the truth may be, we still do not know, to this very day on what had happened to the explorer, Walter Drake, even two hundred years later. All his papers and notes disappeared along with him, along with his personal journal, which could possibly help unravel this long-standing mystery.' _

Lupin reread the entire passage pertaining to Walter Drake several times, her heart thumping in her chest excitedly. Finally, she turned to Piper and beckoned her over. The pretty young woman came over, curious and a sheen of excitement in her eyes as well. She was shown the passage where Lupin had marked it with her fingertip and Piper took hold of the book Lupin had. Carefully, she studied the passage, and the enthusiasm slowly dropped away.

"Lupin…Walter Drake's been gone for over two hundred years, it says so right here. Nobody knows what happened to him."

"Yes, but look at the theories. Possibly taken to another dimension, another world. Who's to say he didn't fall into my world, somehow?"

Piper considered this, but the frown on her face remained. "But the maps you showed me…the ones from last night, and the distances you added in…your world is huge. There are places even your people haven't finished exploring in it. Who's to say if he did come to your world…he didn't end up somewhere else and died? Like on the other side of your world, in China or in the middle of the Pacific Ocean?"

Lupin, despite her often-bright mind and sharp wit, hadn't considered that large, gaping hole in her theory. In her thrill of finding something useful, she hadn't thought of that. Slowly, her face dropped and she sighed heavily, motioning for the book back. "I guess so. I just thought…well, you know…"

Piper smiled kindly at the older woman and patted her on the shoulder. "It was a good try, and it does bring a lot to light about him. Who knows, maybe he did come to your world. Maybe this is where he's been for the rest of his life after his disappearance. But, even if it is, we don't know where his ship or any of his belongings would be."

"…_The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull_?" Lupin quipped jokingly, although the _Indiana Jones_ reference fell short, and her joke died before it had a chance to live.

She sighed again and shrugged finally, feeling a little deflated and shot down from her discovery. "I kind of feel bad right now. My town isn't…exactly the hot spot for supernatural or oddities that are otherworldly, you know? I would think that places like L.A. or New York City would hold more to a candle in these situations, but, well…"

Again, Lupin shrugged, and shook her head. "Kinda makes me wish I lived in those kinds of places, but then again, you wouldn't have these mountains to conveniently hide in," she added as an afterthought and Piper beamed a little at Lupin.

"It's not your fault where you happen to live. Don't beat yourself up too much about it, all right? We'll figure it out. Things…always seem to work out in favor for us, you know? Don't dwell on it."

Lupin chuckled and nodded before checking her watch and grimacing. "Shit. I gotta be at work in an hour. We gotta get back."

"Where do you work again?"

"I work at a bookstore." She said and she watched with hidden satisfaction when Piper's eyes widened. "And, I can go in the back and perhaps see if there's anything there that's not out front. So, while I'm working, you and whoever else is willing to, they can help with the ongoing research, too."

Lupin was thoroughly surprised when Piper latched onto her with a thrilled squeal, to which she recovered quickly and laughed, hugging the younger woman back.

"Come on, I'm not _that_ awesome! Well, I _am_ pretty awesome…" Lupin joked again, but after putting her joking aside, Lupin grew serious. "I can't have y'all running around like Finn and Junko were earlier today, though. Keep an eye on them, please. I don't want to get in trouble. I need to keep this job; it's what helps pay for the majority of my bills. If I lose it, well…" She trailed off, but Piper nodded in understanding.

"I get it. Don't worry, I'll make sure they don't do anything too stupid."

"Hm. Well, if they like comic books, they've got sections for that kind of stuff. Maybe that'll keep them preoccupied."

Piper grinned in agreement and the two gathered the four books they had and stuffed it in a backpack Piper procured from under her desk, and shouldered it.

"Let's go and get the guys, then. We don't want you late for work, now do we?"

With that said, they exited Piper's small, but quaint abode and made a beeline for everyone's room and the bridge.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Lupin barely made it on time to work, but luckily, no one at her job seemed to notice and if they had, they thankfully stayed silent on the subject. Before she clipped on her earpiece and nametag, Lupin eyed the Storm Hawks, who had been changed over in their new clothes for several hours now.

She looked over them for a few moments, still taken aback by their sudden change in appearance. She was used to seeing them sporting their uniforms, from the show and from seeing them before her. Now, they were sporting jeans and shorts, casual shirts and in Piper's case, a sweater for the incoming-colder weather. Stork strictly refused to wear shoes, and after considering her options, Lupin finally consented at Target…only to add that she wouldn't be held responsible if he stepped on a piece of glass or a rusty nail and got tetanus or some other life-threatening disease. Stork finally jumped the bandwagon and chose a pair of wide-toed shoes.

Finally shaking the experience from earlier that morning out of her mind, Lupin strictly instructed that if they needed her, just wait at the information desk near the middle of the store. If they wanted some coffee from the back, come get her, she'd get the drinks. If they wanted food, she'd give them the cash to go to one of the neighboring fast-food joint strips outside of Borders.

"Anything else, like new material to read, I'll see what I can find. And you two," Lupin eyed Junko and Finn especially, her jaw slightly clenched. They stood stock-still, and she knew that they still remembered her snappy conversation with them that morning. "If you want something to do, go look at the comic books section and read in the back of the store, they have chairs and tables."

The duos eyes lit up at the words 'comic books' and they immediately perked, attention caught.

"Where?" Was all they asked and Lupin motioned towards the side of the store. "Over there and don't run around like wild things! Please, for the sake of this job that I _can't_ afford to lose, _don't_ get me in trouble!"

They were immediately trotting off, making a beeline for the section that beheld their precious book section. Lupin heaved a sigh, hoping that she helped divert a possible disaster into quiet time for the two rambunctious youths. Piper gave Lupin an encouraging grin before asking if she could be pointed out a few sections. Lupin gave her the directions and the young woman disappeared as quickly as the other two. Soon, she found herself with only Aerrow, Radarr and Stork.

Or rather, Stork looked around the store, sniffing slightly before grimacing and walking off without a word, head swinging to and fro before he disappeared around a display shelf. Lupin raised a brow before turning to Aerrow and Radarr.

"You need anything in particular or are you just gonna, you know, do your thing?"

"I'll look around a bit. How long will we be here?" He asked, and Lupin glanced at her watch before motioning him to follow.

"Well, it's four right now, and the store doesn't close until eleven, so that'll be the end of my shift. Sorry it probably won't be that exciting; we aren't exactly entertainment central here. Unless you're a bookworm with nothing else to do with your life."

Aerrow laughed. "Not really, that's Piper's expertise. I'm not much of a reader, but I'll give it a go every once in a while." He paused for a moment before blurting, "It's not that I can't read, it's just that I'm not that into reading, like Piper is."

He grinned a little sheepishly and Lupin snickered before patting his shoulder good-naturedly. "Don't worry, I get it. You don't have to say much…although, if you're into comic books too, they're just over there. If you pick up one of the smaller, thicker ones, you'll have to read them from right to left, not left to right like a regular book."

"Why?" He raised a brow in question, confusion and interest mixed in his face.

"They're called manga, and they're from Japan. It's the comic's original formatting, so don't freak if nothing makes sense if you accidentally read it from left to right. If you need any help, though, I'm just the person. I've been reading those things since I was, well…younger'n you. Wow…that just sounds really weird."

Lupin made a face for a split moment before she laughed again and patted him on the shoulder again.

"I think I can figure it out, it shouldn't be too hard," Aerrow replied easily and he started off towards the appointed section, giving Lupin a cheery wave. Radarr, however, leapt off from Aerrow's shoulder and scrambled to Lupin. Aerrow gave Radarr a curious look before continuing on his way. He trusted his friend knew what he was doing and whom he was with. Radarr whined a little, looking at his feet before growling and miming a few things. Lupin stared, somewhat confused before offering her hand to him.

Radarr sniffed it before taking it in his own, whining. "Let's see what you want." She said as they began walking slowly. Radarr mimed for her once again, snapping teeth, swiping at the air, sniffing. Lupin furrowed her brows. "Hmmm…is it…animals? You want to look at the animal section…?"

She was given an affirmative nod and a toothy smile. Lupin mentally checked that as a score for herself. "Okay, then…novels or informative books?"

He raised two fingers up, indicating the second option.

_On a roll, score again._

"All righty, then. Let's go to the animal section. It'll be a bit small; I'm afraid, sorry."

She led him through the aisles and shelves before stopping at the appropriate section. Radarr immediately began browsing, and Lupin thought it an odd and yet adorable sight. She whipped out her phone quick as a wink and took a quick picture, Radarr none the wiser. She grinned at the little blue-furred creature's picture on her phone before putting it away.

"You'll be okay here, right?" She hesitated when he nodded. _Should I even leave him alone? __I mean, someone might see him and call animal control or something…_

So far, she hadn't heard complaints, either at Target or here yet. Thankfully, Radarr seemed to have found what he was looking for exactly and pulled it off the shelf before tromping after Lupin, squawking at her cheerfully, tail held high with pride. She laughed.

"Well, let's get you back to Aerrow. I don't know what someone would do if I left you alone. Chase you out, most likely."

Radarr growled, as if offended, and gave her a slight glare. Lupin held up her hands in defense and said, "Hey, whoa, I never said me. I said other people. I wouldn't chase you from my store; I'd keep you in. But people have a weird thing about animals being in stores, unless they're seeing-eye animals for the blind." She paused for a moment. "And no, you can't play one for me or anyone else. It would defeat the purpose of my working here or someone in a book store that doesn't have Braille books for the blind."

Radarr's ears drooped and he whined sadly before he saw Aerrow and perked before setting off with a quick, sharp howl. A few kids from the children's section turned heads towards the blue-furred Atmosian creature and giggled loudly, pointing at Radarr before he disappeared behind the shelves, before the mothers could see what got their kids excited. Lupin smirked a little and turned away. She barely took a few steps before her radio crackled and a voice came up, requesting personnel in the back room.

Pivoting on her heel once more, Lupin turned 'round and made her way over as quickly as she could.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The writing was splendid, simply works of genius, each piece of literature was. Certainly, he'd read plenty of dark literature; plenty that ended in bad fortune, doom, fatalities and death, but none in Atmos seemed to match this man's skill. Edgar Allan Poe, he was a man to be put on a pedestal for surek, even almost two hundred years later. His works were dark and poetic words that had a delicate balance between good and evil, light and dark.

He had stumbled upon the works by complete and utter accident; a hardcover book that wasn't leather bound to his surprise, but once he picked up the completed works of Edgar Allan Poe, he was enraptured. _The Raven_, _The Telltale Heart,_ _The Cask Amontillado, _and _The Fall of the House of Usher _were several aforementioned stories in the introduction, which he promptly flipped to and read to his content.

Stork found himself thoroughly enjoying everything he read, poems and stories alike, and soon the hours passed by quickly. Stork turned another page, nearly finished with _The Black Cat_, but paused halfway through a sentence. Well, it was more like he was startled out of it and he curled up in the armchair that he had found conveniently vacant in the far corner of the store. Shakily, he peered around, book left forgotten in his grip, but he minutely relaxed when he saw Finn. The blonde haired young man stared down at the Merb in pure curiosity, although it shifted to a single, cocky brow to be raised and a questionable smirk plastering upon the sharpshooter's face.

"What in the world are you reading?"

Stork recovered fairly quickly and retained a controlled attitude, returning to his more comfortable position, propping the book back open.

"_The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe._" Stork replied, miffed at having been interrupted. Finn tilted his head to the side, viewing the cover. Stork noticed that the younger man had a pile of comic books in hand. Stork gave a quiet "Hmmph," and pulled the book back over his face, an obvious indicator that he wanted to be left alone now, thank you very much. He tried to read further, to finish the story of _The Black Cat_, but he could just feel Finn hovering, boring holes into him, like some sort of mindless zombie, just standing there, looking at him, waiting—

Oh, no. He was a zombie, under mind control, wasn't he? Stork froze up. He had to get away, now, before—

"Hel-_looooo_, Stork to Terra Atmosia. Come back down, space-man, we're gonna be leaving soon. We're meeting up in the back to wait for Lupin, come on."

His book was pulled down none-too-gently and Finn was eyeing him with that same blue gaze, no glazed over or glassy look to them, no dumb look on his face…well, dumber. Like a mind-controlled zombie would have. Stork snorted again and slowly pulled himself to his feet, eyes narrowed at the younger man.

"Touch my book again, and you'll like me less than you already do."

"What, it's not yours. You didn't _buy_ it, did you?" Finn said as he grinned slyly while they set off towards the back of the store. Stork, however, gave this pause and narrowed his eyes to further slits.

"Are you planning on buying those…comics, then?"

Finn hugged the books closer and glanced at Stork, his triumph crumbling and he frowned. "Uh, well…you see, I was gonna, well…"

"Exactly." Stork smirked.

"…I'll ask if you ask."

Stork tilted his head a little, lips pursed before he nodded. "Done."**  
**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

** The name, "Walter Drake", is a combination of two Englishmen, one an explorer and the other a New England colonist, both from several centuries ago. I thought that the histories of both men put together would benefit into making an Atmosian explorer.**

**Walter Raleigh had helped with the establishment of the colony of Roanoke Island, when New England was first being settled. The colony, however, had mysteriously disappeared without a trace of what happened to its settlement and its colonists. **

**Francis Drake was an explorer who had circumnavigated the entire world. Basically, he did what other explorers did before him; sailed on the seas and oceans to other places, only he took their game and went pro. **

**Making things come together more and more strongly than the first chapters had done. Things will probably stitch together even tighter because I'm rewriting events to come sooner rather than stringing them along. Just thought I'd make a note of it to y'all.**


	5. Breakthrough

**Chapter Four:  
Breakthrough**

**Reviewers:**

**Wicca in Training**

**Saerphe**

**Apollo Pompano**

**Assassin of the Shadows**

_**Disclaimer: **_**All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them.**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

**Zack:** _This is the type of situation where people say, "Oh, my God."  
_**Hodgins:** _Pretend you're a person and say it.  
_**Zack:** _Oh, my _God_.  
_**- Zack and Hodgins, "**_**Bones**_**"**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

It was late when Lupin finally rolled up to her house. It was too early for her body to sleep, however. She was wired awake, while the Storm Hawks were slumped in their seats, tired, and ready to collapse into oblivious sleep. Lupin's mind continued to work; thoughts whirling like a hurricane continuously inside her head. She was thinking heavily on the discovery she'd made earlier with Piper's books.

Despite the puppy-eyed faces she'd been given earlier, and the handful of books she'd been silently pleaded for, Lupin was too much deep in thought to consider anything other than buying the books. It was time to do some more research, she thought determinedly.

She knew she probably wasn't much use, not much at all, but she was going to at the very least, try her damnedest to figure this out. Still, it didn't stop her from getting onto her computer while everyone was slowly collapsing into their respective sleeping spots, and crashing. It didn't stop her from typing away on her quiet keyboard, computer screen glowing in her face, words blurring every once in a while as she tirelessly began a search for 'Walter Drake'. For a while, she found nothing.

It almost seemed a fruitless search, until she found him mentioned in an obscure article from a science exploration magazine that had stopped running years ago, before she was born. She read on and went from there, finding other article links below on the bottom page and unearthed more articles.

Again and again, she found references to the man, theories postulating he was not of her world, that he had come from another world. He had simply "_shown up one day in London, speaking of places not a properly educated gentleman had ever heard of_", as the author of the article quoted from a letter of a small-time geologist had written to his wife in the mid-1800s.

He had traveled over most of Europe and parts of the Mediterranean before settling in England, the article continued, and marrying. He often sketched the vehicles from his world for his children, although most of the notes and sketches had been destroyed in a fire that he had unfortunately died in.

The only evidence left of the man had been his journal, intact and the only thing saved from the blaze by his wife. The journal had been lost for a time, then found again and placed on display in a museum in the early 1900s. A few years after its display, it was stolen and never seen from again.

Lupin stared at her discovery, reading the name 'Walter Drake' throughout the articles. In one of them, she found a sketched portrait of the man and frowned before diving for Piper's bag and fishing for the book she'd been reading earlier that day. She flipped through it rapidly, yellowed pages flipping by in a blur. She remembered a picture from the book, somewhere around the page she'd found and when she found it, she squinted at it and the sketched portrait on the computer. They were an exact likeness, perhaps details changed here and there. He looked slightly older on the computer, but he had the same, crinkled eyes, same smile, same facial and bone structure…

_It's him. It's really him. He really did cross over to my world, the sunovabitch._ She could have kissed the book's portrait, or her computer, or both. _Oh, my fuckin' God…I did it. _

_I did it!_

If Lupin hadn't been aware of the sleeping young woman in her room, Lupin would've screamed with joy at her discovery.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

She stayed up all night; writing down everything from the online articles until her wrist and hand was sore. Lupin bubbled with excitement at her discovery. It had almost seemed like a fruitless endeavor, a wasteful amount of time before she found that vague article, and then the rest began to pour on further. Lupin was ecstatic; she wanted so badly to wake up everyone, to show the Storm Hawks what she'd found.

She'd marked the book on the page with the picture, added the article with the sketch to her bookmarks, and after she was finished with everything, couldn't sit still. It was nearly five in the morning by the time she was finished, and she was wide-awake.

It was too good to be true.

_That book is somewhere out there in the world. But where? Where, dammit? _

The last it'd been seen was in England, years and years before the 1900s. Who knew where it'd gone by then? It could've been destroyed or lost or even worse…

Suddenly the prospect of trying to find a needle in the haystack seemed worse now, since she didn't know what needle she was looking for. As easily as her exhilaration had bubbled up, now it had deflated like a popped balloon. She knew, to an extent, that the military kept an eye on the skies. She didn't know anything beyond that much, but she had an idea that if the Storm Hawks attempted to fly anywhere in their ship beyond her valley, they'd be pinned down by satellites in an instant.

That thought alone made her afraid. What if they had seen them when they first appeared in her world? What if they saw the ship from up in space right now, and people were scouring over it now? The possibilities made her shiver uncomfortably. _Someone should be at the _Condor_ to keep an eye on it, shouldn't they? But what if the government goes in armed to the teeth? _

She was going in circles for the next hour, worrying herself to death. Finally, she had to force herself to stop and take calming, deep breathes. There wasn't anyone there yesterday. Maybe we'll be lucky for a little while longer.

Holding to that belief, Lupin finally noticed the time and sighed heavily before powering down her laptop and getting up. Her back cracked and popped satisfactorily and she quietly made her way out of her room, glad that she hadn't woken Piper all night.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The house was mundane and quite normal for the valley's many housing residential areas. She would sorely miss it; it was a rather peaceful and quiet place. Perfect for raising her two kids, but they had a duty, one that has been passed on through her family.

They kept an eye on the skies for any who passed on into this world, the coordinates of each opened portal written down with care and from a hand that had long ago passed onto the next life. The woman gazed at the skies above the house she stood before, the stars bright and gleaming, or at the very least, the ones that could shine past the light pollution of the towns and valleys surrounding the area. It was still enough to emit a sense of calming clarity to the woman.

Each year when the worlds collided, chafing at the veiled barriers between one another, the portals would open for a short time. So far, in all her life, she had never seen anyone cross over, until a few nights ago. Her mother had one experience, as did her father. At least once, for every member in the Drake family's lifetime, something would cross over for them. Whether it was a creature or a squadron or even a single human life, at least once, something crosses over.

The woman returned her gaze to the darkened house, and smiled a little before taking the envelope she had on hand and placed it inside the mailbox. She gripped the old leather book in her other arm tightly; almost afraid it would disappear if she didn't hold onto it.

A car was parked, engine idling and a young boy sat in the backseat, half dozing while his mother delivered the letter and the book alongside it. When the door to the driver's seat opened, he snapped awake half-heartedly and yawned.

"Are they gonna go home, Mom?"

"Soon, baby. We're done here. All we can hope now is they won't dismiss the letter."

"Do we have to move away again?"

"…Yes."

The little boy groaned and whined at her as to why they had to move.

"Because we watch the skies for them."

"Who?"

"…We watch the skies for Atmos, sweetie."

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The smells of breakfast woke him and he sniffed the air experimentally, nose tingling at the scents of sizzling bacon, frying eggs and buttered toast. The rich, dark scent of coffee brewing began to mingle with breakfast foods soon, and he growled. Radarr peeped his eyes open a crack and closed them tightly sluggishly at the cool gray light filtering into the bedroom that belonged to someone else. They were not on the _Condor_, he remembered vaguely, and he was not in Aerrow's room. It smelled of someone else entirely. A rather pungent and dirtied smell, if he was to judge.

Again, he growled hungrily and lifted his head to sniff the air again before slithering off the bed and slumping by the other sleeping form on the floor, stood and cracked his back. Radarr smiled a little in approval at the results, and wriggled the door open and started for the kitchen downstairs.

He found Lupin there, surprisingly, cooking. So far, he had assessed she was not much of an early riser. Nor was she very cheery or alert in the morning like the rest of the day. In fact, he saw her more alert and aware at night than anything, but who knew? But this morning…it seemed she was different. Alert, like at night, jittery nerves and agitated movements, she worked too quickly, an impatient expression on her face, and yet there was a gleam of anticipation in her eyes, they were dancing with life.

Radarr noticed plenty of things. One of them was the people around him, especially his crew, his teammates, his close friends. Lupin was an ally and while she seemed a bit of an odd human to him, he trusted she sincerely meant to help them, so he gave attention to detail around her as well. After all, they were guests in her home; it would be rude to ignore her.

So, when Radarr came a-sniffing around the kitchen, Lupin, already being wound up as it is, turned at his loud sniffs and blinked at him several times. Radarr was surprised to see dark bags under her eyes, like she hadn't slept well or at all, but she smiled at him. Yes, she was too active this morning. Something was up. He hoped it was good.

"Mornin' Radarr. Breakfast is almost done, don't worry. Scrambled eggs, bacon and fresh toast. And coffee for us caffeine lovers," She added, pointing a spatula at the brewing beverage. Radarr in turn whined and shook his head, a polite, "_No thank you_," sent her way in the manner of mimed actions. She continued to beam and shrugged at him.

"I'll set up the table in a minute. Can you please check on everyone, see if they're getting up yet?"

Radarr gave her a mock salute and a toothy grin before skittering away to check on Finn, who had taken the living room couch. He was mumbling and sniffing in his sleep, eyes half-cracked open but still glazed over. Radarr poked at him several times before the young sharpshooter smacked at his prodding little fingers. Finn snorted and slowly came to, sitting up and rubbing at his bed headed mess of hair. Radarr darted off to the den, where Junko slept and was able to prod him awake as well.

If Lupin was this active, this vigilant in the early hours of the morning, something was up. He didn't want anyone to simply pass it over with sleeping in. He hurried upstairs, ready to wake the others.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

"This…this is amazing!"

Wide eyes and groping hands reached for the paperwork of written notes and scrambled to view the computer Lupin had brought out. Piper was viewing the sketch on the computer, compared to the one in the book, scrutinizing both before she had to push away the laptop, the book, the notes and everyone else made a grab for them. She looked to Lupin, who was standing off a little ways from the group, a hopeful smile on her face, but she looked so…awkward, as if staring into a window, not invited in.

"You were right, you…you found all this?"

"Stayed up all night for it," Lupin answered with a awkward grin and slight shrug of the shoulders.

"All night! You didn't have to, you know!" She exclaimed, face showing her guilt. Lupin, however, seemed to be having none of that, even with the stares she was getting from the others.

"Nah, don't worry about it. I've got this night owl condition that I can't shake off. Life long, and all that jazz, you know? Besides, it was freakin' bugging me, and I couldn't shake it off. I just wanted to know, to see if I really was wrong or not."

"You did great work," Aerrow offered and Lupin smirked a little.

"Don't thank me, thank the Internet and all the people who wrote those articles. I just found them after a couple of hours searching. It was a pain in my ass when Google search engine fails epically for a while. But," Lupin said, with a little dramatic flourish to her hands. "It was worth staying up all night. I'll be all right. It ain't the first time I've done an all-nighter for something either frivolous or something completely worthy of my time."

This time her smile wasn't awkward or sheepish. It was triumphant and brilliantly happy, despite the bags under her blue-gray eyes or the tired look on the rest of her face. Stork eyed some of the paperwork while everyone was looking at Lupin and he interrupted their happy, fuzzy thoughts with, "Umm, as much as everyone is excited for all of this…how exactly is this going to get us home? Walter Drake's journal is no longer at this museum in…England, and according to your little maps, it's across your country and this…large and dangerous body of water."

That there, it put a damper on everyone's good spirits. Smiles and faces dropped several notches considerably. Shoulders slumped. Junko mumbled something to quiet for Lupin too hear. She sighed.

"That…I couldn't find out, unfortunately. You'll see in the notes…that someone stole the book a few years after it was rescued from the fire that killed Walter Drake in the mid-1800s, I think it was a little before or after the American Civil War."

"Civil War?" Aerrow questioned, eyebrows shooting into the mess of his red bangs. Lupin nodded.

"Yeah, it's a long story, but…our country had its own civil war and it was about whether slavery should be acceptable or not. Let's just say, a lot of people died." She answered quietly before she sighed again, heavier this time. "I think…the only way you'll find out what happened to the book is to go to England where it was last seen…or find the international phone number to the museum it was housed it. It's still an active building, and we could find out through the archives…"

"That might help," Junko added hopefully, looking at the others for agreement. Aerrow, however, kept his eyes glued to the pages, sifting through the notes, giving Lupin's computer a glance or two. He set the papers down finally and shook his head.

"You've already done enough. I think maybe we should do some of our own research."

"By doing what, exactly? Look…I know that going to England would probably be best, but listen and hear me out. Our government is paranoid of unknown flying craft in our airspace. The government will try to get you to comply to land as soon as you take off. If you don't…they'll shoot you down, and believe me…our planes here? Or rather, our jets, they can break the sound barrier and go beyond it and fly around the world in I'm guessing, less than a day in these aircraft. The entire world." Her hands clenched, face scrunched in displeasure at even having to think, let alone explain this. "I'm not sure how everything works, exactly, since I'm not part of the government, I'm not part of their military. But, I can tell you this…you've got limited supplies, fuel, and I'm guessing weaponry. We have plenty of ammo here, and a very powerful military force; we're one of the strongest countries in this world. Flying to England is a death sentence. It'd be safer if I just tried to make a few calls."

There was a long draft of silence that followed after Lupin spoke, and it was uncomfortable to bear. No one said anything to break the tension for a long time. Stork finally cleared his throat and eyes turned to look at him.

"I think…this is the part where I say, 'I told you so'."

"About what?" Finn grumbled, arching a brow at the Merb.

"Oh, death, doom, despair. The usual." Stork answered nonchalantly. There was another long period of silence.

Then, "You weren't the sunniest kid in class, were you, Stork?" Lupin tilted her head at him and he gave her a dull stare.

"I didn't exactly go to class," came the dull response, as if it should have been obvious.

"…Ah."

"Yeah."

"…You might want to work on that…just saying."

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The morning wound down rapidly after the showing of the notes, the connections, everything. Lupin had taken it upon herself to simply back off, and allow the Storm Hawks to decide what they would do. She hoped that they would at least take her advice; but truthfully, she couldn't stop them if they decided to leave. There was nothing she could do. So, she confined herself to her bedroom, and began to unfold boxes from the mostly empty closet, and slowly began packing things away.

Downstairs, the Storm Hawks continued to review the notes, and through Lupin's computer, through Piper's help. She was the one to pick up the quickest on how to use it, and kept it safely from the grabby hands of Finn.

"Come on, you've been hogging it! I wanna see!"

"Look with your eyes, Finn, not your hands. Do you want to break it, and owe money to Lupin?"

"No, but I'm not gonna break it!" He scoffed. Aerrow sighed and gave Finn a quick glance.

"Just calm down, you'll get your turn to look."

Piper shot a grateful look towards Aerrow before moving her fingers over the touch-sensitive mouse pad on the laptop and clicked on another link that Lupin designated as another article related to Walter Drake. This one was one of the more dry articles, but it was helpful nonetheless. She perused through the article, frowning deeply.

"Hey, look at this part, guys…apparently, when the journal of Walter Drake was stolen from the museum, the authorities went to question the surviving family. But, when they arrived at the last known address for his wife and children, the house was completely empty, like the family had never lived there at all."

"Do you think that his family stole the book back?" Junko mused, frowning as he creased his brow and leaned in to look at the screen. The small print made him squint a little.

"It's…possible. Maybe they took it back because it was taken from them during the confusion of the fire." Piper nodded. "Maybe his descendents still have it. Who knows? I mean, the authorities, it says here, never found the book and the case was dropped after months of unsuccessful searching."

"So, we're basically back to square one. We got nothing to go on. Great." Finn rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically. "And we're still stuck here, in this dinky town, with nowhere to go because some chick says we can't."

He scowled a little and gave the ceiling a mild glare.

"I mean, we've gotten out of scrapes before. What's so different about _this_ time?"

"Because we don't know just what we're up against right now. We've got a vague idea, and Lupin…she was right about our supplies. We've got limited amounts, and no way to refuel if we planned on going anywhere. We'd drop out of the sky as soon as our engine crystals are finished. Our weapons can only be powered for so long, and our Skimmers can't exactly run on fumes."

Aerrow stood and paced the living room, boots clacking on the stone tile floor.

"We don't have a lot of options. As much as I'd hate to admit it, we're stuck. It's best if we conserve as much power we have on the _Condor_ as possible. We don't know when we might need it next."

He saw Piper's agreeable expression, and an indecisive Finn looking at him doubtfully. "Do you have any better ideas, Finn?" He offered to the young man. Finn hesitated for a split moment.

"Not really, I mean…I don't like just sitting around, and we gotta listen to some girl we barely know? I mean, she's pretty cute, and all, but still…"

Aerrow grinned a little at that before he sighed. "I know how you feel. I don't like it either, but again, we don't know what's going to happen and we'll need to reserve what fuel and power we have left. Okay?"

"I don't really mind waiting, Aerrow. I mean…at least we're getting help. We could be out on our own and learn this the hard way." Junko added as an afterthought, nodding a bit with amicable expression on his face. Radarr gave an encouraging growl to the Wallop.

"That's the spirit, Junko." Aerrow said, nodding to the Wallop. Junko beamed back. Stork remained the dark little corner, scowling slightly at the perky faces around him.

"You forget what we learned…satellites in the sky, watching us from above. They could find the _Condor_ if we don't do something about hiding it properly. It's a beacon for this…government and its people. If we don't do something soon, we might end up becoming experiments and locked away in an underground bunker, never to see the light of day again." He 'eeped' after this and stiffened suddenly. "I'll never see the _Condor_ again! We have to go back and check on her!"

Aerrow raised placating hands towards the Merb and said, "Whoa, whoa, calm down Stork, we'll go back, don't worry. We'll see if we can't ask for a ride back to the _Condor_ later on so we can check up on her, all right?"

After another minute of trying to placate their upset pilot, Aerrow turned to face the rest of his squadron, viewing their faces, his own thoughts whirring. There were few options that he could think of and he knew to an extent Lupin was correct on several things, things he hadn't entirely considered.

They didn't know the full extent of her military's force, and the way she was nervous enough talking about it, it was possibly a force to be reckoned with. Then again, facing an entire Cyclonian force is an easy flight through a clear sky to take care of. But, chances were, this world's main powered force might work differently than Cyclonians; they might be more competent, powerful, and of course, they had resources for weaponry, transportation, logistics and intelligence to rely upon.

The Storm Hawks had little to nothing to call up on. No ports to pick up on more crystals, weapon-based or otherwise, no backup to depend on via other Sky Knight squadrons. Nothing. They were not just stuck between a rock and a hard place; they were practically glued there and unable to find a simple resolution to get free.

What help they've gotten is at least ten steps farther than when they first arrived. It was better than nothing, Aerrow reflected. It was certainly a few good steps into the right direction.

"For now, we'll just have to take her advice. Hopefully we'll get some answers soon enough, when she makes those calls about the book."

"Aerrow, it's been almost a hundred years since it was stolen…do you really think it's going to help?"

Aerrow turned to look at Piper, who looked a little more than downhearted about this. She frowned at him, brow slightly creased, and although he was starting to feel the tug of downheartedness about their situation, he couldn't let it get to him. Radarr hopped towards Piper and gave her hand a few pats.

"We'll make it, Piper. You'll see. Things will work out. Just you wait."

What Aerrow didn't know was how close to the truth he really was.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

**Again, for everyone who's just catching up, these chapters are being completely and utterly revised, dialogue and all. Some parts will be the same for story purposes, but so far, there's only been a few instances for that. Some story arcs will probably come a little sooner, or a little later, depending on how I rewrite things. So, in the meantime, please review on what you think about the rewrites! 8D**


	6. Speed Demon

**Chapter Five:**  
**Speed Demon**

**Reviewers:**

**Wicca in Training**

**Assassin of the Shadows**

**Saerphe**

**Apollo Pompano**

_**Disclaimer:**___**All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them.**

**Entirely too long between updates for the newly written chapters, but I won't apologize for the Life Monster coming up behind me and taking a huge chunk of my ass in its jaws. I will admit! That I should've transferred my files to my computer at home instead of letting it sit in my work computer. Otherwise, don't expect an apology from moi, it won't happen. The closest you'll get is this chapter. So, enjoy it while you can. :3**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

_Ask any racer, any real racer. It don't matter if it's by an inch or a mile. Winning's winning.  
_**- Dom, "**_**Fast and the Furious**_**"**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Lupin had packed away as much as she could in a short amount of time, which in the long run, wasn't very much to consider. She was dragging it out as long as possible, and it was only making it that much more painful. It was hard to accept she was leaving her home, where her family was, and the people she loved…well, with the exception of her younger brother. He was getting into drugs, and he was only twelve. She guessed he got it from friends at school or the high school kids he hung out with in the neighborhood somewhere. He was always in trouble at school; he loved attention, and it didn't matter if it was negatively or positively reinforced. He defied authority and not only challenged it at times; he was getting bold enough to mock it.

And by mocking, Lupin was really focusing on how he would try an attempt with an argument of, "Don't _talk_ to me like that, I don't appreciate it," or, "Don't yell at me, it's rude." She often found herself grinding her teeth at how he mocked his parents, pushing the envelope beyond simple rebellion and took it to whole new levels. His snide remarks, drug-seeking habits, and overall nasty attitude and threats to hurt Lupin's mother if he "got mad" or had "bad days", it only enraged her more. It was stressful enough on her parents, but she was past the breaking point now with him.

She couldn't handle living with the little monster any longer. She nearly broke his arm the last time she confronted him for breaking into her room and stealing more her of belongings. There wasn't much her parents could do about it either. Child rearing had become restricted severely in California. Hell, she's even heard rumors that child services could be contacted on the grounds that a child was suffering "mental anguish" from the parents and the parents could be held responsible for that kind of "abuse". She found it ridiculous, of course, but she didn't _completely_disregard that rumor. It could be _partially_ true, after all.

Lupin groaned, putting her face into her hands and shaking it, eyes closed. She just wished sometimes, she could just get in her car, and drive off somewhere far away and not have to worry about all this crap in her life. Sure, it was a cowardly way to handle everything coming her way…

But she knew that just feeling the road flying by underneath her would make it all feel better than anything in the world. Speaking of driving, Lupin paused and pulled her head away, and glanced at her watch. She sighed heavily, wearily and lifted herself up from her post on the ground and began tidying up her room a bit while hunting for her boots. When located, she dragged her book bag out and after finishing cleaning her room into a somewhat more livable space; she left her room, and hoped to leave her problems behind for just a little while longer when she closed the door.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

"So you need a ride to the _Condor_? Sure. I'll drop y'all off before I go to class. Ugh, I don't want to drive the monster, though."

"Class?" Piper was gathering her bag and had stuffed in it her books, along with the notes Lupin had written out for them. She later promised to print up the articles themselves when she could get on one of the computers connected to the printer downstairs. There was pure curiosity in Piper's eyes, interest and intrigue as well. Lupin grinned a little and nodded, shifting her book bag as if to emphasis her words.

"Yeah, I'll be there for about an hour and a half, two hours at the most. I got another one later this afternoon and then after that, we're free until…until…damn, I really should've give y'all a schedule…."

Lupin frowned now, brows knit and hands flying to her hips. "Damn. I totally forgot. Y'all wouldn't mind being dragged out to some ice skating later tonight, would you?"

"Ice skating?" Finn's eyes bugged ever so slightly and he looked ready to burst, unspoken little flings of insults and tidbits he thought were funny on his lips. Lupin quickly delegated a plan of attack, however.

"Well, if you're too _afraid_ of falling on your butts on the ice, then hey, save your pride the indignity of suffering, be my guest. I'd probably be shaking in my boots if I were you too. I mean, little kids would probably skate circles around you, they do it on me all the time."

She shrugged ever so slightly and nonchalantly, and she saw, from the corner of her eye as she turned to hunt for the Yukon's keys, Aerrow giving her rather sly look, that practically said, "_I see what you're doing right there_." He might as well have grinned big and wide and said it aloud, but didn't.

Finn was looking slightly pink in the face by this time, and Piper hid her smile behind a hand, but it didn't mask her giggling. Junko caught on as well and was grinning behind the young man. Finn gave Piper a quick glare, before looking at Lupin. "Fine, I'll go and show you that the Finn-ster can skate circles around you too!"

Lupin struggled to withhold her giggles. She really did. She had to turn away and compose herself, pretending to busy herself with trying to find the Yukon keys in the junk drawer by the wet bar. It was the perfect excuse, even if she'd already found them. Finally, she turned around and grinned and shrugged amicably at Finn, hidden mirth glittering in her eyes.

"That sounds like a challenge. I'll meet up with you on that one," she managed with a somewhat straight face. Aerrow grinned at her from behind Finn.

Finn smirked and held up his signature double-pistols at her. "Chicka-cha."

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

After a quick arrangement, the Yukon keys were abandoned with joy and Lupin was jumping into her Camaro with Aerrow, Radarr, Piper, and Stork piling inside the available seats. Junko and Finn watched from the driveway, as they pulled out and Lupin rolled down her window and stuck her head out.

"Hey, don't fuck anything up in the house, please. Just watch TV, and munch on some snacks. We'll back in a few hours, all right?"

Junko smiled and nodded amiably at her. "Sure, no problem. You've got some pretty interesting things to watch!"

"Hey, wait until tonight! I've got _Iron Man_, _Star Trek_, _Die Hard_ and a whole bunch of other action-packed movies, your head's gonna explode! Just don't break anything, all right?"

"Yeah, yeah, just go to school, schoolgirl!"

"Tch. At least I'll get a good job with my school, kid!" Lupin barked back before pulling her head back in. Lupin eyed Stork from the backseat, who was peering into every nook and cranny his confined space could provide. Finally, he saw her looking and leaned forward, head peeping between the passenger and driver's seat.

"Are you positive this rust bucket is safe to accelerate inside of? Or are you aware of something that might pop off, explode or come apart and thus ending our lives in an agonizing, painful death? Metal shrapnel, exploding oil, anything at all?"

Lupin raised a brow, looking at him oddly. "No, I'm pretty sure I put the engine back together quite perfectly when I took it apart a few weeks ago. Haven't had problems, don't expect to have problems, either. Now, please, sit back, enjoy the ride and thank you for choosing the Bumblebee as your mode of transportation."

Piper snickered at the back, as did Radarr while Stork leaned back grudgingly. Lupin chuckled before starting up the engine and it roared to life, startling the Merb in the backseat before he settled, eyeing Lupin from the backseat with a grimace.

The Camaro slid from the driveway, slow and easy before she started off towards the mall's general direction, and in turn, the _Condor_. Once they dropped off Stork, Lupin reasoned, they could really open it up on the freeway. She was young, driving a beastly muscle car from a lost generation, and currently, was hanging out with fictional people who really turned out to be real. What could possibly go wrong?

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Once they were on the highway after dropping Stork off, Lupin let loose the beastly engine under the hood of her vehicle. Her heart gave a thrilled flip-flop as a quick jolt of adrenaline shot through her, from head to toe at the sheer exhilaration of the speed. She hurriedly rolled over towards the fast lane and watched with a quick glance that the speedometer was closing to eighty. She heard the others chuckling, Aerrow to her right, and Piper directly behind her.

If there was one thing she loved, almost as much as music, almost as much as art, it was just the feeling of speed. For that one split second, when her car thrust forward with the torque and power beneath its hood, she felt a sort of weightlessness, a moment of clarity and peacefulness. That was before the next second afterward that reality slammed back into her, molding up against the plush seat she sat in.

She loved to hear her engine build up from a tickling purr to a chest-thrumming roar, the working pistons and cogs all moving as one to propel her forward. And, she had to admit, she loved her Camaro, its newly furnished interior, its sleek build and newly painted hide. When she had first gotten it, her Camaro had been another color, a steely bluish color, with flecks of the primer paint showing. It hadn't been the prettiest looking one out there, but now it was getting there.

One of the first things she changed about the car, besides some interior work and having her friend help work on the engine, was get the paint done. It had cost her several pretty pennies, but with help from her family, it was made possible. After it had finished its final cycle in letting the paint settle, Lupin had plastered Autobot sigils on either side of vehicle near the front fenders, just beneath the 'Camaro' sigils. She got plenty of positive remarks about that.

And now, she could glide down the paved highway with pride. Music playing with good speakers felt good. Having the engine working cleanly and properly was even better, she mused happily. A year's worth of hard work and most of her money going into her car was rather well spent money, in her opinion, as well as investing the painstaking time to learn, and hammer in the knowledge to work upon her car, to know it inside and out.

But what really made it all worth it was just for that one moment before the speed comes and latches onto her, making her heart pound and the excitement thrum through her body, coursing through her veins. The weightlessness, like nothing could touch her, nothing at all.

Her moment of clarity, however, was interrupted, her music almost drowned out by the heady growl of another engine, the throttling noise of it challenging as it sidled up beside her on her left. Lupin gave her left side a glance and saw the pearly gleam of a silvery-gray Ford Mustang driving parallel to her. The driver, a young Hispanic man, thin and wiry, was looking at her, while periodically looking back to the road as they went.

Repeatedly, he increased the roar of his engine, inching forward and backwards as if in challenge. He smirked at Lupin. Beside her, Aerrow said, "Friend of yours?"

"_Hardly_. I've beat this guy in three street races already. He's just here for another dose of his smack-down medicine," Lupin replied before slipping the clutch in and throwing the stick into neutral. Her engine grew louder than the Mustang's, coming to a full roar, before she threw it back into a lower gear and shooting forward quick as a wink. Almost instantly, she was hitting ninety-five, hitting a hundred, weaving through the thankfully sparse traffic. The Mustang driver didn't take long to react and he was coming up hot on Lupin's tailpipe.

"He's gaining!" Piper said, and Lupin thought she detected a hint of excitement in the younger woman's tone. Lupin gave a feral grin and tightened her grip on the steering wheel in one hand, shifter in the other hand. Radarr gave a loud squawk before it drawled out into a long, drawn out whine.

"Not for long," Lupin half grunted, half laughed. She pressed down on the gas pedal, and again, that second-long floating sensation, before she was crushed back into her seat. Music blared and in perfect accordance. Lupin, without realizing it, was mouthing along to the words, feeling a little breathless, yet energized. "_Hey, are you okaaaay? You look pretty looow, pretty handsome awkward! Hey, are you okaaaaa-aay? You look pretty looow, pretty handsome awkwaaarrrd!_"

They were coming up to their exit. She knew the guy went to her community college, as well, she'd seen him a few times, when she paid enough attention to the crowds she moved through. She wasn't sure if he knew she went there…but she supposed now he would, as they breezed through the exit, tires squealing at a sharp right turn. It almost felt, as they lurched with gravity, that the Camaro would topple.

"We're gonna tip over," Piper squealed and Lupin again laughed, confident and having faith in her vehicle.

"No, we ain't!" She cried back, and they were back in the game, engine snarling almost like an animal now, wheels spinning like tireless legs, body streak and lithe. The Mustang almost gained on them, the nose almost passing her back wheel and fender. She gave another sharp right turn, tires squealing, white smoke peeling away from the wheels. The scent of burnt rubber momentarily filled the air and Lupin inhaled deeply, reveling in the smell. It was almost as addicting as a campfire's scent. The Mustang took the turn sloppily and the crescendo of the music built and built before it leveled back to the chorus, the lead singer for _The Used_ belting it out. It only seemed to add to the effect of the race.

She was soon aware of the two whooping and hollering of Aerrow and Piper, Radarr was howling in triumph, and she let out one of her own, a half-shout, half-howl before they came to a long curve in the road. Abruptly, Lupin slowed and suddenly, the Mustang was overtaking them, passing them, gone, gone, gone.

The hollering stopped and the music came to its end, and a less stimulating song began to pour from the speakers. A speed limit sign came up, reading thirty-five miles per hour. Before they'd come up to that sign, Lupin knew that they had been doing almost eighty. Now she was lightly tapping the gas, despite how much her nerves jittered to go faster. Her heart was demanding the adrenaline rush and her limbs aching for the sharp turns, quick shifting and heavy foot to never let up.

"Why'd you stop! You were winning!" Aerrow said in disbelief, staring at her with those green eyes, wide with disappointment. When Lupin glanced at him, she saw the childish glee and eagerness in his eyes, as well as the disappointment in her for allowing such an opportunity slip away from her.

Lupin chuckled low and deep in her chest, looking like a cat after a fat meal. She nodded ever so slightly to the right side of the road up ahead. Reluctantly, Aerrow and Piper both looked ahead and nearly burst out laughing seconds later. The Mustang driver, thin and wiry and darker skinned than she, was looking angry and red in the face. He was pulled off to the side, a police cruiser right behind him, lights flashing. The driver caught sight of her and her companions and they were all grinning at him from behind the officer.

Lupin even gave him a cheery and rather cheeky smirk and a quick wave of her hand before taking off at the mundane speed limit. She saw him pitch a fit from behind the wheel and shout, pointing at her from the rearview mirror. The cop did not look happy and ignored the insistent pointing towards her.

She pulled up to her college campus, passing by row after row of filled parking spots before finding an empty one. When she slid into it, pulled the e-brake up, and cut the engine, she leaned back into her seat, grinning like the Cheshire cat.

"You know…" she started with a pleased tone. "I think I may have won that race."

Aerrow and Piper were quiet for several seconds before they broke into fits of laughter. Radarr was bouncing excitedly, eyes bright with mirth. Lupin couldn't resist and joined them moments later.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

"Heeeeeey, hookah!"

"Eeeeee, Loopy! I thought you didn't have any classes today, hoe!"

Lupin cackled and shrugged nonchalantly as she came up beside her friend, a pretty Hispanic woman with the right curves in the right places, witty brown eyes behind wire-frame glasses, and a plain, but cute outfit on of jeans, a ruffled pink shirt and converse shoes. She smiled wide as Lupin set her guitar down and hugged her. This was Bishquet, Lupin's best friend, confidant and more like an older sister to her than anyone she's known.

"Nah, I got some classes switched around, remember, Bishie-kins? Art's today, and oh shit, I didn't finish, crap I'm screwed," Lupin groaned and shook her head. "Daaaaannniiiii, I'm deeeeaaaad, I didn't do my art homework!"

Another young woman turned at her name and blinked at Lupin, who gave her a pitiful look before Lupin repeated her whiny, childish statement again. "Oh, man, that really does suck. Hate to be you."

"What, you finished! You suck, dude! I forgot it was due today until this morning! And I was up all night, too!"

"Why didn't you do it then?" Dani asked, beginning to tie back her shoulder-blade length hair. Lupin paused at this, looking deep in thought.

"…I was researching shit on the internet? It was for, uh, science! Yeah, that's it! _How to Kill Zombies 101!_Nazi zombies!" She answered quickly, although looking rather sheepish. It was partially true, actually, she was doing research. It just wasn't on Nazi zombies. Aerrow and Piper definitely knew that much, as far as the research part went. They didn't know where the hell zombies or "Nazi" zombies came from even. Frankly, they didn't even know who or what a Nazi was. Piper made it a note to ask Lupin later on. "I'm screwed with Miss Petria, aren't I?"

"Preeeetty much, yeah…unless you can finish it in like, twenty minutes." Dani finished and Lupin paused at this before taking note of everyone else around her. Several other friends were there as well, and Lupin greeted them in turn, despite her big letdown. She gave them each big, strong hugs, a friendly and platonic peck on the cheek, and quick poke in the side with a silly grin on her face. A tall, wiry young man plucked Lupin's guitar up and immediately began strumming it, and adjusting the wires while he did so.

"Jeez, when did you last tune this thing, Lupin?" He asked incredulously, and yet he had a nice smile on his face, easygoing and chilled.

"Uh, last night, when yo' momma was in my bed for a private showing. Oh, snap!" Lupin replied, before bursting into giggles. He smirked and began snickering. Bishquet joined in, along with several others.

Aerrow laughed from a comfortable distance, watching as the rather funny events began to unfold before them. They watched and listened as Lupin jested and jabbed with her witty humor and sharp tongue before she was able to tear off from it all and motioned towards them. Aerrow stood a little taller when she did so, Piper perking up as well.

"Hey, y'all, meet some cool cats. This is Aerrow and Piper. Piper's my…cousin and Aerrow's a buddy of hers, dropping on by for a while. And that little rascal is Aerrow's buddy, Radarr. You guys all right if they chill with us for the rink tonight and the party on Saturday?"

There were several stares sent their way, some wary and others curious. A young woman with a head of short red hair and wire-frame glasses smiled at them and shrugged. "It's all right with me, Shadow-chan. I don't really care. Nice to meet you guys, by the way."

A young man with ginger-red hair was sitting next her, an arm around her waist and he grinned. "I don't really care either. I didn't know you were having cousins in town, though. What else aren't you telling us, Shadow? You got a boyfriend now?"

Lupin snorted and waved a dismissive hand at the red-haired young man, and simply shrugged like the others. "Pffft. Like that'll ever happen, I'm too wild for anyone to handle," she said with a rather mocking air about her. Again, she broke out into a smile, and it was a relief to see her playing it so, well…cool.

As Lupin would tell them later, she was a queen at bullshittery, _especially_ when it came to schoolwork. Lupin went to Aerrow and Piper, wriggled between them, arms around their waists in a casual manner. She grinned, and they did too, but more out of a simple nervousness and a curiosity of what was going through Lupin's head. But it passed and a genuine set of smiles soon replaced the anxious ones.

They returned the gesture, quickly lapsing into the role of "cousin" and "cousin's friend".

But they still had to wonder at the things that whirled through Lupin's head. Sometimes she was as unpredictable as a sudden gale storm.

And it was in that moment, the girl Lupin had called "Bishie-kins" said to her, "Uh, Loopy? You got like, five minutes to finish your project. Just so you know."

"…_Fuuuuuuuuuck!_"

Then again, she was pretty funny like a frightened chicken in that same sudden gale storm, too.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

She was scribbling furiously with her art tools, markers flying, hands creating jerky movements; exaggerated strokes and she leaned so close to the paper she was practically touching it with her nose and cheek. Another pen came to her hand, the other abandoned and again, the same exaggerated, jerky movements continued. Aerrow and Piper stared in silent and utter amazement. They had never seen Lupin's art, had only heard her refer to herself to an artist, but now seeing her art…

She was rather good. And so was her friend, Dani, who sat next to her, preparing her already finished project to be viewed by the teacher. Miss Petria, Lupin had called her, was still not in, and Lupin had thanked whatever forces was looking over her for such good fortune.

Dani watched with a slightly nervous look on her face, eyes a little wide, lips puckered up, as she watched Lupin work furiously on the piece. It was almost finished, details still needed to be added here and there when the teacher walked in and the class began to quiet down to a whispering hush between students.

"All right, all right, calm down, people! I hope your weekend was as good as mine was, and that you all finished your projects! They're due today, and you've known for three weeks now. I don't want to hear any bullshit reason why you couldn't finish, unless you were in the hospital or kidnapped by the men in black, and even then, it shouldn't be an excuse."

For the second time in two days, Aerrow and Piper were perplexed by the reference for the "men in black". What was the obsession with men in black, they had to wonder.

"Done!" Lupin suddenly hissed in triumphed, hands stained here and there with marker already. Dani looked to her and gave her a thumbs up.

"Good job," she simply said before turning her eyes back to Miss Petria. Lupin did as well, looking once more like the smug cat that got the canary for dinner. Aerrow reached for the paper and Lupin, without looking at him, slid the paper towards him and Piper sat close by the young man, looking at the piece while Lupin paid some attention, but not much, to Miss Petria's droning.

Oh yeah. She was the queen of bullshittery, even at art.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

During her class, Aerrow, Radarr, and Piper had somehow gotten a hold of Lupin's art book and began skimming through it with interested, wide eyes. Lupin herself was too engrossed in doing a charcoal self-portrait, a mandatory project for her portfolio and her fingers were too messy to snatch it back up. Miss Petria had eyed them for a long time, and finally asked who they were, directly to them. Lupin had saved their skins, just like she'd done for Junko and Finn the other day.

Miss Petria continued to gaze at them for a long while, pondering over Lupin's explanation before waving a dismissive hand at them. "Keep them out of trouble, and if you drag them to my class again, I'll flunk you. I'm not having some _kids_ get free classes. This is a college course, not a preschool."

At this Lupin merely gave her a sheepish smile, and went back to her portrait, talking between them and her friend Dani. Aerrow and Piper were a little indignant at the accusation that they were merely kids, but a quick explanation from Lupin on how things worked in her world, they were somewhat more understanding. It didn't mean that they weren't somewhat hurt by the title, though.

It was disheartening to find out that skilled warriors in her society weren't really held on a pedestal or even allowed to defend the common people. _They_ were merely treated as kids with some nice kung fu skills and left it at that. Perhaps some showmanship is allowed, but other than that…society didn't see them as anything but their age, and age was everything in Lupin's country. The older you were, the more privileges you were granted. The younger you were, the less privileged you were, and thus, were too young and naïve to understand anything in this world. Of course, there were always exceptions, but even the exceptions had their limits…

You couldn't learn to drive until you were sixteen. You were considered a legal adult until you were eighteen, but that was for the formality of politics and the law. You weren't of age to drink until you were twenty-one and you were still treated as a child, at times, because you were young. You were still considered "high-risk" until you were twenty-six. Even if you'd done more than most adults, your experience will mean nothing if you don't have a good age under your belt.

There was certainly more to it than that, Lupin had stressed to them, that there was so much more in the world that was different than America. But the explanation she'd given them, she explained further, was only the very tippy-top of the iceberg, not even getting down and dirty in the bigger picture. She gave them a brief summary that in other countries children were sometimes put to work at a young age, that they learn to kill at a young age, and that they learn to be hard like adults in these countries.

"The laws suck here sometimes, I get that…but unfortunately, unless you want to end up in jail, you gotta follow them…"

Here she paused, staring hard into her charcoal-laden paper, taking her fingers and smudging sections here and there. Then she continued.

"Buuuut, sometimes, there are rules that are made to be broken and it ain't illegal until you get caught." She added that as a distant afterthought, the ghost of a wicked grin cresting her lips upwards a little before her face became placid once more. Every once in a while she would switch the conversation when she wasn't too deep in concentration with her art. She'd switch it up between her friend and Aerrow and Piper. Dani sometimes asked questions, though they kept in mind quite clearly that they couldn't mention where they were really from. Lupin had given the vague response of, "Eh, they're from…New York…City, yeah."

To which they simply played along with her, mentioning 'New York City' a few times as well, but never divulging too much information that they didn't even have. Radarr was indignant at being called a pet several times, and even growled at a few offenders, but after a glance from Aerrow, knew he had to play along, grudgling.

"I trust my friends and all, but I just can't risk someone finding out and using them to get information, you know? It's best to limit exposure as best as possible." She would later tell them. The way she said it, there was a pained expression on her face, as though she wished she could divulge in help with someone, but at the same time, knew she couldn't.

"I'm probably being paranoid with the government, and I'm probably being paranoid about you guys in general, but…I don't want to push it any further. I don't want anyone getting hurt or worse if someone found out about you."

There was enough risk with Lupin, and she probably knew it as well as they did.

When the class finally came to an end (with Lupin in a veritable mess of charcoal dust, pencil smears, and somehow, paint down her pant legs) they were back in the school's plaza. The trickle of students was slow at first, and then became like the rush of a river. Bodies flowed past them as they sat at the same wall where they had first met with Lupin's companions and friends. Several came by, and hung around, and it was during these times, they caught a fun, wiry and energetic glimpse of Lupin.

It was a surprising contrast to her more serious, dry-humored, and mature version they'd first been introduced to. They even caught a sight of her acting rather silly and childish while she strummed on her guitar, plucking the strings half-heartedly without a care. People stopped to watch, or listen, and then moved on just as silently as they'd come.

The pretty Hispanic woman Lupin called Bishquet was the one who hung around the longest, and even begged Lupin to come with her to the mall. "I need to get some makeup, dude, seriously! And hey, maybe we can find something for your costume! Like, I dunno, eye shadow or something. You're not just gonna go with _black_, are you?"

Bish eyed her dubiously, lisp quirked in a teasing grin, and her eyes pleading. Lupin hesitated and glanced back at Aerrow and Piper. She felt torn, in that moment, and then despite her wish to go, she shook her head. "I, uh…I got a few plans going on with them, sorry. And I've got class in the afternoon, so we wouldn't get much done anyways."

Bishquet wilted slightly before she nodded and smiled a little. "It's okay, hun, I get it. You don't want to ditch the family. Besides, you get to see my fall on my ass later on tonight anyways."

Lupin cackled at that reminder and hugged her friend, shouldering her bag and guitar case. "Yeah, that's true. You can laugh when we both get bruises on our asses tomorrow."

Another laugh passed between them before they parted and Lupin was once again at their side, trotting alongside with her bag and guitar almost seeming to dwarf her. She, however, had vehemently defended that she was all right carrying her things.

When they reached her car in the parking lot, they weren't alone. The same wiry young man from earlier was waiting beside her vehicle, looking livid and ready to throw punches. Lupin narrowed her eyes at the man. She had never learned his name, nor was she ever given it. She knew he was of an irate temper, and would always throw a fit of some sort whenever he lost. She was surprised that she hadn't found her vehicle in shambles or the tires slashed or parts of it stolen.

He stalked towards them, and she saw, from the corner of her eye, Aerrow's hands twitching, as if ready to spring. Radarr's fur had gone to a bristling state, his face curled in a little snarl, just as ready to spring into action as Aerrow was. She knew he didn't have his weapons, and neither did Piper. She had made them both leave them at the house, for fear of being stopped by a cop, or a security campus officer. Weapons were, as they were everywhere else, illegal to carry on your person, unless you were of law enforcement or had a permit. She was quite sure none of them had such a thing, and if they did, it probably wouldn't be valid in this world.

That didn't mean they couldn't fight and improvise with what was around them, Lupin reminded herself. And, she knew she wasn't too shabby if push came to punch. She had a mean right hook, she did.

"You," the young man hissed, his muscles corded and bunched in his arms and hands. "You…you stupid bitch, you set me up!"

Lupin smiled a little sweetly, shifting her guitar a little more securely on her shoulder.

"Oh, don't be such a poor sport. So you got a ticket because you were speeding! Not my fault I remembered the cops like to sit on that particular corner, and you didn't. It's not my fault you engaged in the race, when all I wanted to do was go to class and paint. Got my adrenaline pumpin' I'll admit that much, but hey—,"

"_You'll_ pay for this thing! I can't afford this thing, I just lost my job! It's your fault I got it anyways!" He protested, taking a step forward, a finger jabbed in her direction.

Lupin rolled her eyes and made to get past him. Aerrow tensed behind her and Piper moved a step forward, muscles taut and twitching in response when Lupin was blocked. The young woman glanced at the taller, lithe form before her, and in his fist, she saw the ticket curled between his fingers.

"Three hundred and seventy-five dollars! I _can't_afford this!"

"Not my problem," Lupin replied more firmly, the fun and playful tone she'd first used gone. Her eyes narrowed and she made to pass again. She was shoved this time and she stumbled a few steps back, thrown off-kilter by her burdens. She growled low under her breath, made to move again, but Aerrow and Piper both stepped forward, ushering her back.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?"

"Just get in the car. We'll have a talk with your little friend." Aerrow said, giving her a confidant smile, before turning to face the wirey young man again.

"Can't even fight your own battles, eh, girl? Pathetic bitch."

The guitar case dropped with a dull thud and the backpack was on its way to the ground when Lupin rushed forward, her fist connected with the taller man's face. He went down hard and fast, surprised at the energy and force behind a surprisingly small opponent. Lupin stood over him, her body rigid and an ugly-as-sin face contorted in a snarl.

"Get the _fuck_ out of my way, or your face is gonna be caved in by the ground after my fists are done with it. _Got it_, motherfucker?"

He was on his feet in an instant, eyes blazing and looking ready for retribution, but paused when he saw the two figures right behind her. He looked torn between getting revenge for the sucker punch, and withdrawing from further confrontation. Finally he backed off, still glaring at the diminutive form of Lupin, fists curled at her side, shoulders hunched and looking quite ready to go.

"Next time they won't be here to protect you, bitch."

"Well, let's hope it's after your court date and you're safely behind bars for not paying the ticket you got, ass clown."

He spat out another curse and took off down the lane of parked cars, occasionally glancing over his shoulder to give the three of them a dark look. When he disappeared from sight, and after Lupin's heart had finally stopped feeling like she had just finished doing sprints, Aerrow started laughing. Lupin looked at him like he'd gone mad, and even looked to Piper for back up on this one, but she was chuckling, albeit more quietly beside him. "You…I didn't know you could fight!" Aerrow said. Radarr chirruped in agreement, lips curled in a smile at her.

"…I can't. That was a lucky shot." Lupin deadpanned, staring at all three in disbelief. Piper grinned at her, although it faltered when she saw the expression on Lupin's face. It wasn't one of sharing in the triumph of scaring off an opponent, but rather the look of someone who was just realizing what they did. Something they did that they were ashamed of.

"That wasn't a lucky shot. You knew what you were doing." Piper said pointedly. Lupin sighed.

"…Fine. I know how to fight. A little. I'm not some kung fu master, though, all right? Let's just…drop it, and get going."

"What? What's wrong?"

They stopped laughing, and stared quietly, their faces melting into confusion at Lupin's aversion of the subject. In fact, she looked a mite embarrassed and was quickly scrambling to pick up her bag and guitar. She unlocked the Camaro and began to haphazardly shove everything into the back, ignoring their questioning gazes and persistent inquiries.

"Are you sure you're all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine. I just…don't want to talk about it."

She was more than just embarrassed, they realized. There was something else there, something they couldn't pinpoint, yet it was on the tips of their tongues, nagging them from the corners of their thoughts. Lupin ushered them quickly into the car and after getting the car started, they were off again, racing off campus.

To say the least, Lupin was embarrassed and also ashamed of herself. She hated losing her temper, and it had happened before, with her family, her friends, and especially her brother. He knew how to get under her skin the best. It's happened with bullies who tried to pick on her as a child, before she started shoving them back when they tried to push her down. She wasn't atypical in the category of troubled children, per say, but she had had plenty of fights as a child and very little friends. Mostly it was simply standing up for herself, defending herself. It hadn't looked that way to the school system, unfortunately and she ended up suspended plenty of times in elementary school. In middle school, she had mellowed out enough to reduce those, and by high school, they all but disappeared.

Lupin had her art to thank, mostly, because it kept her mind off things, gave her a healthier venting process and was something to look forward to other than bruises and cuts and scrapes. Books also kept her attention elsewhere while the world went round. Music blocked it out further. The perfect combination of things that kept her occupied had also kept her out of the office more or less, which her mother would always be thankful for. She didn't like to think of how she'd gotten into those fights as a kid, thinking of how stupid her reasons were to let a fist fly instead of trying to talk it out with an adult. It was something she grew to turn the other way on, but every once in a while, the anger would snap in her, and she'd throw the occasional punch or kick just to get a point across. It certainly made certain people think differently and tread carefully around her the next time they crossed paths with her.

Like with her brother. Like now in the parking lot.

She was grateful when Aerrow and Piper finally dropped the case and lapsed into relative silence. She knew they were curious, but she didn't want to indulge them. What was the point, she told herself. They didn't need to know. As far as she was concerned, no one did.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

**As always, reviews are always welcome, even anonymous ones, but critique is ever so more delicious to devour and read over and mull upon. :3**


	7. I Want to Know Your Plans

**Chapter Six:  
I Want to Know Your Plans**

**Reviewers:**

**OneDayAtATime**

**Saerphe**

**Wicca in Training**

**Eldonyx**

_**Disclaimer: **_**All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them. **

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

**Zoe:** _Cap'n'll come up with a plan._  
**Kaylee:** _Well, that's good. Right?_  
**Zoe:** _Possible you're not recalling some of his previous plans._  
**Zoe and Kaylee, "**_**Firefly**_**"**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The movie _Die Hard_ with Bruce Willis was blaring at a soothing billion and five decibels when they arrived back at the house. Explosions blasted from the high-definition stereo system, assaulting Radarr, Lupin, Aerrow and Piper's ears. Gunshots rang throughout the home, and then the soothing, rolling suave tongue of Alan Rickman speaking made Lupin grin stupidly. Oh, yes. Action films she must have.

It made her regress to a gleeful, squealing little girl as she rushed into the living room and threw a punch in the air as Bruce Willis swung into action, snapping witty words out here and there, guns ablazing and mouth going off…

"Yippie-kai-yay, motherfucker," she chuckled before turning away to drop her bag by an ottoman. Princess, her mother's little terrier followed her to the back door and she allowed the small dog outside to do her doggie business. Turning back, she eyed the others, noting how at ease the five were right now. And, as much as she didn't want to disturb them, she knew that they had to continue their search. _Maybe the library. We can try that next. Wait…I think I owe them money, from that last book I borrowed from them. Which, my mom checked out for me. In my name. Perfect. Goddammit. _

Shaking her head, she grumbled to herself a little and went to the fridge after letting Princess back in, and grabbed a soda. She fixed her gaze on the five that sat on the couch, squished shoulder to shoulder and hesitated. _Well…maybe after the movie, we'll get going. _

After all, her next class had conveniently gotten cancelled, ironically enough. Someone had been smoking in one of the bathrooms—against regulations, of course—and set the sprinklers off. The fire department had, while she was in class in a separate part of the school and a separate building, of course, pulled up and began to address the situation. The building's sprinklers went off in a daisy chain reaction, and several classes were soaked thoroughly before the department got there, fixed the problem, and left.

Her friends, before they all left, had told her about it. Lupin had found it quite hilarious, to be honest, but not so much when she found out her class—an introductory class to using a tablet on the computer—had been one of the classes hit by the sprinklers. It was too early to tell how much damage had been done to the computers in the class. Another friend who'd had a class in the same building said that all classes there for the next several days would be closed to ascertain the probable damage.

Which, incidentally, left them all open for the afternoon to go searching for more word, more information and possibly a clue to go on after all she'd found out last night. Turning the corner to lean on the wall and watch the movie for a while, she felt herself begin to relax as well. It was infectious, and even if she knew there was a duty to be had, her mind had been, ever since she met the Storm Hawks, a train that was headed for a mangled, heart-wrenching crash if she didn't slow it down. She needed the rest, the time to put her mind at ease and recharge it a little.

So, slowly, she ambled to an ottoman, gradually easing her tense muscles and overworked mind as she watched Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman play their parts at a cat and mouse game in _Die Hard._ She, of course, cheered for Bruce Willis, but damn if that Alan Rickman wasn't a fine-ass man, too. Before she knew it, it was the final show down, the bad guy versus the good guy, and the wife as the hostage. The glass shatters, they fall, the good guy saves the day and his wife and poor Alan Rickman is falling to his death forty stories high while millions of dollars begin floating down to earth in the form of paper notes instead of dollar bills.

The credits begin to roll and everyone begins to stand, stretch, use the bathroom, grab another drink or a snack. Lupin takes a stand as well and glances at her watch. Yep. If her class hadn't been cancelled, she'd have been late by now. She shrugged, and moved towards the foyer, to the front door. She'd failed to get the mail yesterday and the day before that. Sheepishly, she wondered how much junk mail over actual important mail had accumulated.

It was sunny and warm outside, just as it had been this morning, and of course, she knew come November, the winds would pick up again and with it, ushering in the fall season. Even if her hometown was technically in fall, very few trees at this time of year had begun turning different shades of gold, red, orange and brown. In another week or so, they'd start to.

Just as Lupin predicted, as she opened the mailbox, there was a crap load of letters, junk mail and even a magazine for her stepfather crammed in the mailbox. She didn't want to know what a week's worth of mail looked like, if this was only three days.

The paper bundles wanted to shift and scatter, as Lupin began to carefully pull all the mail out. She was trying to even it all out so it'd stay in one pile, but some papers fell, much to her dismay. She piled the magazine on top of the last bits and was about to close it when something else inside caught her eye. _A package?_ _I didn't order anything. Mom would've told me if something was coming…_

Curiosity taking hold of her, Lupin yanked the thing out and was surprised when she found out it was a book. It was old and musty smelling, leather bound and looked like one of her grandmother's older tomes, the gold letterings faded and peeling. She couldn't read what was on the side, and the front was worn from years of handling and use. She flipped through the pages nonchalantly, but with care, noting how yellow they were and that the book was handwritten in curly, fine-tipped cursive. Several sketches accompanied the pages, sometimes there were only pages upon pages of sketches.

_Jeez, did Leonardo da Vinci send me his long lost volume or something,_ she thought in wonder as she glanced at the different pictures. She read a quick passage, one about building a device that could produce signals through the air, and when it bounced off an object, would return to its place of origin.

_Echolocation for when you're flying in the air? But…we have that already, don't we?_

Perturbed and curiosity growing ever more, she flipped to the front cover, and found a letter there, folded into threes and carefully tucked in the front. There was no address, but somehow, her gut told her…it was for her, for the Storm Hawks. Somehow, she knew without reading it. She flipped to the back, perhaps hoping to find something else there. Instead she found longitude and latitude coordinates, and beside each of them, was a list of where the coordinates ended up. Brazil, Japan, England, the Congo, Turkey, Greece, Canada, Antarctica—so many places, her head began to spin as she read names of countries she was sure they didn't exist anymore.

She closed the book with a snap, and then the mailbox, hurrying inside. Tossing the mail on the staircase and rushing into the living room, she felt suddenly breathless and probably looked like a madwoman as she stood there, holding the book in the air.

"It's…it's his!"

They stared back at her, and indeed, it was like she had gone mad. Piper, ever the diplomat, came forward, a little more tense than usual which annoyed Lupin a bit, but she ignored the younger woman's actions and held it out. "It's his! HIS JOURNAL!"

"_What?_"

She jumped back as if shocked and stared wide-eyed at her, like she had suddenly grown extra arms or another head.

"It-it is! I don't know—I don't know _how_, but it was in my mailbox, I was _just_ _fucking there_, and it-it's, well, _look!_ His sketches, his notes, it's got to be Walter Drake's journal! It's _old_!"

It's old. How lame did that sound? As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she knew how lame, how crude, and how utterly depraved they sounded. Like the words of a mad person, like the words of someone gone off their rocker, over the edge and into the deep. Her desperate tone, her haggard stance, it just didn't seem like the rational thing to do. But it was also the heat of the excitement, the moment itself.

Despite the disbelieving stares she was given, she stammered about the coordinates in the back pages, the sketches in the book, the _yellowed pages_—

_Dear God, I do sound crazy! Yellowed pages? _

She jerked the cover open and while pulling the letter out for herself, she handed the book to a reluctant Piper. Aerrow came to her side, looking a little doubtfully at Lupin, but nonetheless, peered over his friend's shoulder as she skimmed through the book. Lupin began reading the letter to herself, and she nearly dropped it, collapsing on her butt.

Then she began to read the letter aloud at a fast pace, stumbling over the words here and there, mind once more working in overdrive, heart pounding. When she was through, she saw eyes on her, wide and round like saucers. Radarr's mouth dropped open. No one reacted, except for maybe Princess, who strode up to Lupin, ears down and paws bouncing on the stone tile floor, nub of a tail wagging as she whined for attention.

The silence was crushing, and as Lupin steadied her breathing, she finally broke out in a grin. "It's all here," she whispered. "His family—they had the journal this whole time, and-and they, they must have dropped it off, knew you were here, or something! They've been keeping an eye on these places, these coordinates! _They knew!_"

Despite how crazed she sounded, and not having complete and concrete evidence, it just seemed to click. The fire that had devastated Drake's family spurred them to steal the journal back, and after lying low, they began tracking the skies for others. It must have been Drake's goal to get home, but…

_But he never did._ Lupin's thoughts came to a sudden halt. "But why?"

"Why what?"

It took her a moment to realize she'd spoken aloud. She looked down at the letter, crisp and clean, a striking contrast compared to the old and worn journal in Piper's hands. Junko and Finn had crowded around her and Aerrow, while Radarr balanced himself upon different shoulders and arms, looking down between the journal and her. She licked her lips slowly, mouth suddenly cotton dry.

"He…he never went home. He must've…wanted to go back, you know, to Atmos. But why didn't he?"

"He had a family." Aerrow simply said, a light smile playing at his lips. Lupin hesitated.

"He could've taken them with him, though."

There was a collective silence between them all before Finn shrugged. "Maybe he didn't want to do that. Maybe the guy went crazy or something and decided to watch for people like us. I dunno."

Surprisingly, his answer did make some sense. Except for the crazy part. She didn't think the man was particularly crazy, if he was a genius explorer and scientist. She stared, suddenly solemn, at the book in Piper's hands, the letter still in her hands. Her palms began to sweat and she hurriedly switched the piece of paper between hands as she wiped them clean.

"He wrote so many coordinates in here…I'm surprised he knew where they were from, where they would be…this is extraordinary!" Piper exclaimed excitedly, fingers clenching and unclenching along the book's front and back. Her eyes flew to the paper in Lupin's hands and instinctively, without being asked, the older woman handed it over. In turn, she motioned for the book. Piper hesitated, but then consented and Lupin began flipping through the pages. She went to the coordinates at the back of the book, staring at them all. If the countries had not been scribbled in, she would have been at a loss of where the rifts between worlds were. She had failed miserably at geography, and yet, ironically, could read a map well enough _without_ coordinates. She had her wilderness training to thank for that.

Piper began to murmur excitedly under her breath, a grin on her face as she babbled about the letter. After gently asking and prying the book from Lupin, who was in the middle of looking at a sketch that looked suspiciously familiar to Piper's heliscooter, began flipping through the first pages. Everyone, including Finn, including Junko, fell quiet in their rambunctious and victorious cries of, "_We did it, we're going home!_"

They trained their eyes on her, as she stepped away, but it wasn't that she was only stepping away now. She was worlds away, her mind elsewhere and her mouth working on autopilot as she began to read through the words and pages.

"January the Eighth," she began to read aloud. "Year, 1798."

Hope was the name of the game, and each of them all had plenty of it, and were certain they'd win this game. They'd come too far not to.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Passages from the journal claimed the time. It passed swiftly. Piper skimmed through journal entries, passed over many sketches—several of which she squealed and prattled happily about how he'd invented such-and-such in their world, in Atmos. She skipped to when he'd first entered Lupin's world, his thoughts on his first initial culture shock and progression of settling, of learning, and attuning himself to the world around him. His theories of space and time, so advanced for the year, it was ridiculous.

How he watched as the world around him changed, advanced, the inventions he had contributed to. While other men claimed the credit for the actual building and creating, it was Walter Drake who had brought over his ideas and utilized them for this world. It amazed Lupin how his ideas, merely passing theories and inquiries, had affected her world so much. _He was behind it all? Jesus, Mary and Joseph._

It blew her mind away, but as she sat and listened to Piper read aloud—who needed water every once in a while for her growing raspy throat, and Lupin willingly obliged by fetching her several water bottles—she began to realize how much there was she didn't expect.

It was when attention began to wane, and the most mundane of entries began to bore everyone that Piper finally decided to skip to the back with the coordinates. "It's all here, the different coordinates, ever since Walter Drake appeared over two hundred years ago. His family passed it on throughout the generations after he died in a fire, and the journal had been in a museum afterwards. It was stolen back, right before your world's First World War broke out."

She skimmed through the coordinates, finger running down the list before a frown crossed her features. "This…not all of this is Drake's handwriting."

"What do you mean, Piper?"

Piper thrust the book towards Aerrow, who took it in his hands, and she pointed, leaning close. Lupin was once more lounging on the ottoman, while Junko, Radarr and Finn raided the kitchen for food. She was sure they were trying to scrounge up peanut butter and jelly for sandwiches, but she wasn't so sure her family had anything of the sort in the house.

"Here, it's different than the first two pages. It's smaller in print, a little clumsier in script, and blockier. Can you see the difference?"

"Yeah, I can. Good eye, Piper."

Lupin glanced at her watch, the excitement from earlier waning. Outside was growing dark. She should be getting ready for the ice rink soon, but at the moment, it didn't seem as important anymore. Princess snorted where she lay nestled beside Lupin's legs. She watched the other two on the couch, half an ear on them, the other on the three in the kitchen. If any accidents were to occur, she'd want to remain alert to it.

"Does that mean people have been adding coordinates over the years?" Lupin asked on a whim, and Piper glanced at her, smiling.

"Possibly, which is good for us. I was cross referencing with some of the coordinates in the book, and well, it seems that at least ten years' worth of coordinates ahead of this year's has been added!"

"Really?" Lupin's eyes lit up, and the activity suddenly quieted in the kitchen.

"You serious? Aw, freakin' awesome! When do we leave?" Finn piped up. Piper chuckled.

"It says here…hold on, this script is really cramped…" She took the book from Aerrow, leaning close to the page, squinting, lips moving wordlessly. Finally she leaned back and looked at them all. "On Halloween night, at midnight."

The silence, like before, was crushing. There was only a difference between earlier and now. For Lupin, it was deafening. She could hear the rush of cars outside, the cricket's chirping, Princess's quiet breathing against her leg, and the concealed squeals of joy emanating from Finn, Junko and Radarr. For the others, it was such a jubilant passing of word, that they couldn't find words to further pass along.

Finally Finn began whooping at the top of his lungs, startling Princess from her doze. Lupin blinked several times, her brain slowly processing what she'd just heard. Midnight. Halloween night.

_My party. I'll…have to miss it to see them off, won't I? _

The thought made her somewhat glum. She and all her friends had been saving for this once-a-year occasion. Kit and fiancé, Vance, both good friends and like older siblings to Lupin, had a good family friend of theirs renting out a warehouse, you see. And, this good family friend was willing to loan out the warehouse for a big Halloween get-together, for a very low, affordable price. After consulting with everyone in their ring, Lupin branched off even further and got even more people to join in on the plan.

Funds were raised while supplies were listed out and separated, then doled out to people to buy when the time came. Costumes were squealed over about, made, bought, created, whatever the case may be. Some people kept it secret, others blathered on publicly. The warehouse was cleaned up, sorted out, and already prepared for everyone's arrival. For weeks and weeks in advanced, Lupin had been a bubbling, enthusiastic _thing_ of excitement, running herself ragged with getting her costume ready, of helping pay off the warehouse's rental payment, organizing the party to come. After finalizing a date, everything was set into motion, the cogs going, and the wheels turning.

After hearing this set of news, it was deflating to hear that their only window of hope was on the night she had been preparing for, months in advanced. Her face must've shown what her thoughts were stirring up, because the grins on Piper and Aerrow's face slowly fell away too. The celebration behind them, however, hadn't stopped, and had moved into the den.

"Is…something wrong Lupin?"

She shrugged listlessly, completely on autopilot. "No, no…it's nothing."

The two of them didn't look too convinced, even when Lupin tried to smile it off. _It's just a party…not like we can't have another one._

"Is it this party that's happening on Saturday?"

_Shit. I forgot I told them about it. Er, I actually only mentioned it, didn't I?_

She shrugged again. "It's…it's fine, you guys. I'll be fine. It's just…" Lupin bit back her tongue, shaking her head. "Getting y'all home is more important than some party. I can always wait for next year, ya know? And there'll be other parties too! Like, like Christmas!" She added the last bit as a failsafe after seeing their stricken faces and waved her hands as an extra precautionary. "I promise, it'll be fine."

She smiled, trying to believe her own words. She'd invested time and money into the party. It was a party, but something she'd help bloom into fruition…time and money, hard work, and plenty of late nights to fix that warehouse up. But she knew her priorities had to be straight. Get the Storm Hawks home.

Anyone else would do the same in her place, wouldn't they? Put aside personal needs, wants, and gains and put what needed, absolutely and above all else, to be done first. At least, she _hoped_ people out there would know how to put their priorities in order. She knew she wasn't perfect. She wanted to be selfish and say, "_I'm going to my party, screw you guys!_" But it wouldn't have been right. Morally, she wasn't the best, and had been a sticky-fingered little thief in the past, but she at least tried to stay on a good path. Know what's right and wrong, treat others all the same no matter their race, skin color, religion, heritage, and what have you. The little things.

But she should have seen what happened next coming. Aerrow exchanged looks with Piper, both of them smiling. It wasn't a set of smirks, or sly grins, but merely a passing look of knowing what was on the other's mind. She looked between the two before she realized too late what was going on.

"Oh, come on! Don't worry about it! You don't have to freakin' worry!"

"Well, it's the least we can do since we're invading your space, you know," Aerrow pointed out, leaning against the couch, hands casually placed behind his head. "Besides, you look so gloomy about it. Can't have our host being sad."

"But you're the guests, dude. Guests come first."

His grin grew bigger. "True. And we're grateful."

"Very. You've done so much! I'm not sure we'd have done much without your help!" Piper added. Lupin felt heat rush to her face.

"Dude, _anyone_ could've helped you!" The older woman protested, feeling the heat continue to rush up her neck, into her face.

"But _you're_ the one helping us. So, we're grateful to _you_."

_Oh, cliché lines, where have you been? Hiding, I suppose._ Lupin groaned mentally, her smiling mask breaking under the pressure of embarrassment, of self-consciousness. She wasn't exactly sure if it was a good kind or a bad, but either way, she knew her usually tanned face was flushing red.

"Oh, don't look like that! We can still make your party _and_ our deadline at midnight to the rifts between both our worlds! If we time it just right, we can get both of them out of the way!"

Piper looked downright cheerful as she said this. Lupin's face slowly ebbed away from its crimson demeanor and returned to its normal tan appearance as she thought about it.

_Jesus. Usually_ I'm_ the one who finds those kinds of solutions. Why didn't I think of it first?_

Slowly, it did make sense. If they went out earlier than usual for a quick neighborhood trick-or-treating, they could come back, rally at her house, and head to the party to help out with the decorations. Then they could spend an hour or two with the celebrations, cut loose early, and then…

Then she could say good-bye to the enigmatic crew of young prodigal children known as the Storm Hawks. The Sky Knights of Atmos, defenders of those who couldn't protect themselves…

The enormity of who they really were slowly began to make her see them in a different light. They were a little childish at times and slightly goofy too, but the show…it had nothing on them and how they really were. They acted the same, sure, but there was an air of something else, something different that the show itself just couldn't compare to. Even if the show was their origins, she realized, the story always continued beyond its origins, the story always progressing, always evolving. _Like Inkheart or The Never Ending Story,_ she reflected, stifling her hysterical little giggle.

The solution was so easy, so simple, she had overlooked it.

Piper and Aerrow were still giving her placating and understanding gazes, those light smiles still fixed in place. Lupin slowly felt the corners of her lips turning upwards and she nodded. "Sure. That…that sounds perfect."

"Great! Now, what was going on again tonight? Something about an ice rink?"

Lupin, momentarily, felt her brain go blank at that. She groped for several seconds, giving her watch a blasé glance before she stopped mid-breath, eyes bugging out.

"Aw, shit, we're gonna be late!"

And thus, the chaotic rush began.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**


	8. On the Ice

**Chapter Seven:  
On Thin Ice**

**Reviewers:**

**Saerphe**

**Wicca in Training**

_**Disclaimer: **_**All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them. **

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

_If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance.  
_**- Anonymous**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

First she forgot the car keys. Then she forgot that she was carrying her Camaro's keys, did the math on how many people there were, and then had to race back in for the Yukon's keys. After that, she remembered that her house keys were with her Camaro's car keys, so she had to go back for that. Right when everyone was piled inside, ready to go, seatbelts in place, she remembered she didn't have her wallet. Lupin smacked the horn and it bellowed out until she took her palm away from the steering wheel.

When she came back with her wallet, her cell phone, iPod, and both sets of keys, she slowly began to put her seatbelt on, sat there for a good solid minute, simply breathing in and out to calm herself. Aerrow, who had taken to the passenger seat once again, wisely chose to wait until he saw the stressed lines in Lupin's face seep away and smooth out. He cleared his throat at last, and she opened her eyes with a snap, turning those stormy blue-gray eyes on him. He blinked back his surprise, and Radarr whined a little, sniffling the air.

"Uh…I know that you're rushing, and you're probably not going to like this, but…" He cleared his throat again, somewhat a little more tentative this time, because he found out something about Lupin. She had a temper. At times, it was a good thing. Those instances include the street racing in her Camaro, the tenacity with her art, or the viciousness in which she had tackled the task of doing research they would have otherwise never had a clue or access to. At other times, like her vehement anger towards her younger brother whom she rarely spoke of, her past fights with other people, or her initial skepticism when she had met him and the others, was sometimes a bit of a bad thing.

He was sure this next issue would certainly be categorized as a bad thing.

"Well? Spit it out, already," it was half a demand and half a moan, her face looking halfway between looking like a wilted flower or a crazy demon lady about to unleash unholy hell.

"We need to pick up Stork and fill him in on everything before we go to your ice rink."

Here, he was expecting something explosive. Maybe, just maybe, a temper that would explode, burst out like a balloon with an incredible snarl and pop, perhaps a taste of her famous and clever cogs at cussing. Instead, she stared at him, a slightly dumbfounded expression on her face for a long while before she turned away, stared out the windshield for about half a minute before letting out a languorous groan and slamming her head against the steering wheel's horn once again.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The ice rink was relatively empty when they all arrived. Lupin had feared being late and gunned it on the engine, but to her surprise, she didn't notice her gathering group of friends she'd promised to meet. At the moment she was at the teller's window, requesting several tickets to house herself and the Storm Hawks, her phone went off, signaling a new text. She took the phone out, read it, and groaned. "Well, we could've spared another ten minutes or so, everyone's kinda late."

"What for?"

"Traffic coming from Moorpark. It's close to the time everyone gets off work, anyways, so we've got some time to kill. Come on, I'll show you around."

So, off they went, following after Lupin. She pointed out the two ice rinks, one to the left and another to the right, a main staircase leading to a second deck. The main staircase branched off up above to them into separate atriums, where viewing decks for parties and resting skaters could overlook both arenas. Glass windows that were at least eight feet tall stood high surrounding the arenas, bolted to the railings to keep people from flying out of the rinks if they went out of control. Lupin led them off to the left atrium on the first level, where people were starting to put skates on, headed onto the ice, or to the small café shop further down the lane.

"Stay on this side of the arena, because they have ice skaters and hockey players using the other rink, so they don't like us normal folk over there," she explained in a joking tone, but her joke fell rather short.

"Aren't we ice skaters too?" Aerrow quipped, raising a brow at her. Lupin shrugged.

"Not professional skaters, as in, championship-going-on-Olympics-skaters. We're just here for fun, not to train. And the hockey players take over after the ice skaters so they can practice for their games."

"I think we could take them on, right big guy?" Finn grinned with a face that practically oozed confidence. Junko's smile only matched Finn's, big and wide, as he nodded with enthusiasm.

"Maybe him, but you Finn? They'd crush you. No offense." She added the last bit with a sheepish shrug of her shoulders at the pointed glare she was given, but Piper thankfully, stepped in before any barbed words could be tossed out.

"Well, I think we should worry about getting out skates before we worry about the ice first, don't you think? And maybe we'll get some hot cocoa while we wait for Lupin's friends to pass the time, too?"

Seeing the logic in Piper's plan, Lupin nodded. Stork shivered violently beside Aerrow, shoulders crimped upwards and inwardly tightly, hands gripping his arms with a look on his face that read utter disdain for the cold environment. "Is there any place in this cold hell that is even remotely warm?"

Lupin thought for a moment as she went to the skate teller's window, and then pointed above them. "The rooms up there are always warm, well…warmer than down here, anyways. You can hang out there, if you want."

There was no need to encourage the Merb any further. He quickly turned heel and made for the staircase, dodging a group of children with a yelp as he did so and quickly scrambled up the steps before disappearing from sight. The others stared for a long minute before the teller cleared her throat. They turned back, suddenly reminded as to why they were there.

"Can I…help you?"

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

"Hey, Twinkletoes, hurry up and get out here, I've already done three laps around you!"

Finn glowered at the young woman who had, indeed, already done three laps around him in the large ice rink. She cackled as she twisted on the ice, skates scraping the frozen water and she was skating backwards at a rather awkward, but even pace. Finn grumbled on his breath and was preparing to push off from the wall when a squeal of delight-turned-terror sounded off behind him and seconds later that something slammed into him. It turned out to be a five year old kid, who had lost control and went colliding in Finn's side. Finn in turn let out an almighty screech of his own and collapsed in a sprawled heap.

There was laughter and concerned jabber alike as the teen was helped to his feet and the crying child carted off. He nearly fell over again when the prolonged skidding of metal skates on ice commenced, but as he turned, preparing for another impact, he paused when he saw it was Lupin. Her face was flushed and she was panting, a small grin on her face.

"You okay, there? Saw you get hit." She huffed, catching her breath. He nodded a few times.

"Yeah, I'm fine, jeez. Don't they know not to hit other people?"

"Eh. Kids." Lupin shrugged before she skated closer to him. "Come on, I'll show you."

"I know how to do it!"

"Then show me." She pushed away with languid ease. She usually came to the rink at least twice a month with friends, so getting her technique down to pat was no issue. She wasn't sure if any of the Storm Hawks knew how to skate, but Finn had been so eager, he'd gotten ahead of himself and the others and jumped right on as soon as he finished lacing up. She wondered if her goading from earlier might have had something to do with it. _Possibly,_ she mentally groaned. _God, I can be a dick sometimes._

He eyed her beadily, lower lip struck upwards in a slightly pouty look, eyes narrowed and brows furrowed down. "Fine, then, I'll show you!"

She had to contain herself from laughing, he sounded so confident, when several seconds later, he ended up back on the ice, face first. He scrambled up to his knees and elbows and brushed at his face, spluttering. "T-that was just practice! I'm really good, you'll see!"

Again, to his feet he clambered, and after steadying himself, tried again. He nearly went down again, but Lupin leapt forward this time, steadying him and in the process, nearly went down herself. She laughed when he scowled, face flushing from embarrassment.

"Do you even know how to skate, Finn?"

It was an honest question, but when he gave her that dark scowl again, she hesitated. Then it dawned on her. "Awww, Finn I didn't mean it like that. What I meant was, have you skated on the ice before?"

"Of course I have! It's just…been a really, really…really long time…"

Finn screwed up his face a little, a flash of nostalgia striking him momentarily and Lupin could only stare at him, feeling reluctant to shake him out of it. Slowly, the wistful countenance began to fade away as it seemed the world around him finally became known again to Finn. He blinked a few times, refocusing his gaze on Lupin, and he sighed. "It's just been a while, okay?"

She smiled, nodding. "It's okay. I fell a lot of times too. And I used to rollerblade a lot as a kid."

"Rollerblade," he inquired, looking at her in a perplexed manner. Lupin cocked her head to the side, completely sideswiped by that one.

"You don't have rollerblading in Atmos?"

"Never heard of it," he shook his head. Lupin frowned a little.

"Well…never mind, then, about that stuff. Here, just…follow my example, I'll help you get back into the groove, okay?"

Again, that look of stubborn reluctance lingered on his face, but when he perked at the sounds of his teammates gathering on the ice behind him, he faced Lupin and nodded a few times. "Okay, fine, whatever. Just don't do anything too crazy right now. Let's save that for later!"

The maniac little grin was infectious enough to get Lupin returning it. "Okay, deal. Now, you wanna push off on one foot, going forward and have it make a C-like arch when you start and when you start circling that first foot outwards to complete the C, trace it in an inverse with the other foot. You trackin'?" Lupin slowly explained this as she demonstrated, pushing off with one leg, and then followed it up with the other foot. She skated ahead several long paces at this before circling back around towards Finn. He had a baffled appearance on his face, brows furrowed and his lips puckered as he seemed to glare at the ice. Slowly on wobbling legs he started out, small half-circles at first and then as he got more confident, wider arches.

Lupin followed after him, glancing over her shoulder when she heard a loud shout and _thunk_ on the ice to see Junko on his back. Aerrow and Piper laughed as they began helping the Wallop back to his feet. She grinned a little, turned back to Finn and instructed him a little more before moving ahead and once more, spinning so she could skate backwards in front of him.

"That's it, keep it up," she encouraged, occasionally switching her gaze to look over her shoulder and back to Finn. She wasn't exactly a fan of falling herself. She's had more than one incident when someone twice her size would accidentally fall on top of her after she'd trip on the ice. The results were never pleasant, as they usually included a flattened Lupin, and a flattened Lupin was not a happy Lupin. But, even when she was squished, squashed, and utterly crushed, Lupin didn't cry and get off the ice, no. She kept on skating…even if she was bleeding. It was funny scaring people that way.

For another lap around the large rink, Lupin helped with Finn's technique, helping him regain those lost and forgotten skills, and working the muscles that he hadn't in a while. She knew for a fact that his hamstrings, calves and especially his thighs would be on fire tomorrow morning. She remembered her first time on the rink and after the whole night of vigorous, monotonous skating her legs had been nothing but dead weight. It hurt going up and down stairs, and she was like that for several days.

_Ah, he'll be fine. He's bounced back from worse things,_ Lupin thought with a slightly nutty grin on her face as she recalled several instances of Finn's not-so-great moments.

A shout from behind snapped her out of her reverie and she glanced over her shoulder to see Kit and Vance, two of her more senior friends, coming up behind them.

"Hey, kiddo! How's it going?" Vance called cheerfully to her as he came beside her. Kit took to Vance's other side and glanced at Finn, who was eyeing the newcomers with piqued curiosity. He gave a sly grin to Kit, and after a quick glance at him, Lupin promptly nipped that look in the bud before it could continue in conversation.

"Oh, nothing much. Finn, this is Vance and his fiancé, Kit. Kit, Vance, this is Finn. He's my cousin's other friend. There're a few others here, Junko and Stork, and you've already met Aerrow, Piper and Radarr."

Finn's face fell a little when he heard the word 'fiancé'. Vance and Kit thankfully didn't notice this crestfallen expression, and Lupin ignored it.

"Oh, really, little one? Well, you should probably introduce us! They're the ones that're coming to the Halloween get together this weekend with us, right?" Vance smiled as they glided across the ice. Kit had, during this exchange, came around Vance to get between him and Lupin, draped an arm casually around Lupin's waist and gave the young woman a hug.

"Yeah, they are. Finn here's just relearning to skate, so I'm helping him out and making sure he doesn't crack his head on the ice. No hospital trips tonight! Seriously, I don't think I could afford it."

Finn looked indignant at being ignored and he was about to open his mouth when he heard Piper calling from across the rink. He glanced over, and gave a wave. Junko returned it enthusiastically as he carefully shuffled along the ice on his skates. Aerrow and Radarr kept an eye on the Wallop, encouraging others to keep a bit of a berth around him, just in case. They slowed their pace, and a look of relief came across Junko's face as the other Storm Hawks waited.

When the two groups joined together, the usual niceties exchanged between one another, Vance and Kit greeting the Storm Hawks and vice versa.

"So, what exactly are you guys going to go as? We already know Shadow-chan here is keeping hers a big secret, so don't bother bugging her first," Vance asked the others as they came around the big curve. Lupin, who was closest to the glass, noticed her other friends were getting their skates. Breaking off from the group for a moment, she mock-slammed into the glass and surprised several passersby and her friends. They all jumped before making faces and giving the glass a few pounds with their fists. Lupin cackled and waved as she rushed off to rejoin the group.

In her absence, the Storm Hawks stalled on answering the "costume question". What exactly were they supposed to say? Ourselves? Lupin, thankfully, as she came rushing up behind them, tackled Vance from behind. The taller ginger-headed young man laughed at her childish enthusiasm.

"Come on, Shadow-chan! Get over here!"

Lupin knew what she was doing. She heard the question before she had gone to surprise the others by the glass. She knew that the others couldn't answer honestly. Sure, they were dressed up in casual blue jeans, t-shirts and warm jackets now—something Lupin couldn't help but find herself staring at, really, _they were in blue jeans dammit_!—but what about when they were at the party on Saturday? What happened when they came in their uniforms, ready to go home for later that night? Would they be recognized? Sure, the _Storm Hawks_ show had been rather low-key when played on Cartoon Network—when it _did_ play, that was—but would someone recognize them regardless?

More questions whirred through her head as she playfully distracted her friends from the Storm Hawks, to which they were secretly grateful for. She grew less enthused as she continued to skate, interacting with her friends, breaking off to join the Storm Hawks and then back to her friends again. In this time period, she kept an eye on others around her, and on Junko and Radarr especially. No one made a fuss so far, no one bothered the Wallop or…whatever it was Radarr was. _They never said what he was called, did they, _she mused, somewhat off-topic.

Then she shook her head, trying to clear her nagging thoughts. To clear them, or to maybe even help categorize and solve her questions, Lupin finally broke off from both groups to skate on her own, slipping her headphones on and putting on one of her playlists. The music was soothing enough, but unfortunately did little in solving her dilemma. _Maybe I shouldn't have brought them out…but I can't just go out and isolate them, or isolate myself and them! That wouldn't be fair, and besides… _She shook her head, changed the song that seemed to match her erratic thoughts to something soothing and nibbled on her lower lip. _Besides what? This may be a tiny town, but it's still close enough to L.A.! FBI, CIA, and God knows what else is based close out there, and not to mention the military bases only a few hours away, what happens if I slip up and someone reports seeing a rhino-looking humanoid or a blue, furry little rabbit-lemur…thing and they get the attention of some government-funded conspiracy-theory based group to descend on my house? What if freakin' Scully and Mulder suddenly showed up at my door and took them all away?_

The fear gripped her and she swallowed, but her saliva was almost nonexistent now. _That isn't going to happen,_ she told herself. _You know why, Loopy? Huh? Because you won't let it! Fight tooth and nail if something bad happens, if someone tries to hurt them or take them away. Keep them safe! It's just a few more days. Keep them on the down-low until then. _

The thought of her, however, trying to protect the Storm Hawks made her nearly misstep and take a painful tumble on the cold ice under her feet. She ended up slamming into the barrier wall and scrabbled at the glass to keep herself upright, panting heavily, her brow cold and clammy with sweat. She wiped at it fervently and swallowed thickly before she cracked a humorless smile. _Me, _protect_ them? If anything, it's probably gonna end up being the other way around._

_What the hell can I even _do_? What can a ninety-pound civilian versus an armed-to-their-freaking-teeth government do? This conspiracy hiding, secrets-holding government that just loves to keep the public in the dark? Oh, and what happens when they defend themselves? Bullets. _

The disturbing image of a movie-style home invasion broke out in her head, the Storm Hawks trying to fight their way out, and then the attack turned into a hailstorm of bullets and—

_Stop it! You're not helping anything by looking at what-if's and shit. You sound paranoid, like a conspiracy theorist. And…and I'm not. God, I'm starting to sound like Hodgins from _Bones_, or-or…Stork. I'm starting to sound like Stork. _

She made a face, wiped off the remaining sweat and shivered violently as she began to slowly register the cold. Rubbing at her arms, she started back up, only she was skating with half a heart now, her thoughts now tainted with possible scenarios, despite her best efforts to distract herself. She tried blasting different songs from her iPod, but she soon grew disinterested in listening to music. She kept glancing at her watch, feeling as though it would magically be a few days later, October 31st, and she could take the Storm Hawks to the safety of their ship. From there, they could quickly navigate to the next ripple between worlds, go home, and actually be safe. Well, relatively safe, as much as they could with an evil empire on the rise.

Again, she had to chastise herself. _That's right! I'm sure that after facing a bunch of evil bad guys like that, they're not exactly fearful of everything else._ She felt rather stupid, worrying, but when it came to high-strung, stressful things such as keeping otherworldly people safe, for instance, becoming highly anxious and distracted from worry was in Lupin's nature. She picked up speed, her spirits somewhat perkier than a few minutes before.

The music in her ears helped out a lot as well, a somber but upbeat tune telling her to stand tall, that it'll get a little better. She could only hope so, to be frank. The song switched and she bobbed her head to the tune, skating nonchalantly around a couple of kids, feeling much better now, and contemplating getting a nice hot cup of cocoa, when a pair of hands suddenly grabbed at her waist, propelling her forward at a speed she had no choice but to keep up with. At first, she thought it was Vance, and tensed for the oncoming slaughter of tickling, wriggling fingers. Yes, it was an odd habit and one he endeavored with her on a constant basis.

To be honest, Lupin normally didn't like being tickled, she downright hated it. But with Vance, he was one of the very few who could get away with it. The reason Lupin allowed this was because she knew he treated her like his younger sister, and always would treat her like one, ever since the death of his actual younger sister a few years ago. The most painful part of that memory was that she had already had three heart transplants, and had died on the day of her sixteenth birthday. Now Lupin was his little sister, and he treated her as such, teasing and protectiveness and all that entailed. Tickling, unfortunately, was part of that clause.

So, there she was, tensed up and speeding up, but the hands remained firm, before they slowly moved, one removed completely and the other grasping onto her hands. "Hey, relax, it's just me!"

She turned to find Aerrow grasping her hand in his, grinning at her in a relaxed fashion, eyes dancing with mirth. Radarr was perched on his shoulder, giving her that cheeky grin of his and an affirmative squawk that seemed to say, "_Hey I'm here too!_" She blinked several times in surprise, before she began to realize, they were moving really fast. She turned to find them passing up people, coming up fast on Piper chatting with Kit—a strange sight, yes, but she wasn't going to strain her brain figuring out why—when Aerrow shouted ahead of them. They two looked back, understanding clicked into place and they picked up speed. Kit laughed as she grabbed hold of Lupin, Piper on the other side of her.

The exhilaration of the game, however childish, had everyone in giggles. Junko and Finn joined in, Tyler and Dani, Bishquet, Vance, and several others until the line got too long, people got tired. Finally, the line got broken off, and they slowed their progress, went back to their conversations, skating at a slower pace than the breakneck speed everyone had been going earlier. Lupin finally had to call it quits herself, her legs were burning, feeling like lead. Aerrow, she vaguely noticed, hadn't let go, but when she pulled away, he stopped when she did. She went by one of the hockey team boxes and leaned against the wall of it, her breath steaming in front of her as she let out a few chuckles. Aerrow settled beside her, panting almost as hard as her, but his breathing was evener than hers was. A light sheen of sweat was on his face, though, she noticed, besides his heavy breathing.

"Oh…oh, that fun. It's gonna kill me later, though." She snickered as Dani waved at her as she and her boyfriend Tyler skated past. Tyler nodded in their direction, grinning. For a long time, neither of them said anything, simply content to watch others glide on past them. Lupin, however, finally broke the silence with a simple, "You know what?"

Aerrow looked to her, head tilted to the side a little, smirking a little, knowing the game she was playing. "What?"

"I think I was wrong. Finn isn't Twinkletoes." Her grin grew a little wicked as she glanced Aerrow's way. "_You're_ Twinkletoes."

The look on his face when she finished and after she skated away: Priceless.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**


	9. Occam's Razor

**Chapter Eight:**  
**Occam's Razor**

**Reviewers:**

**Saerphe **

**Wicca in Training**

**Apollo Pompano **

**Tiggeranddash**

**.**

_**Disclaimer: **_**All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them. **

**If anyone, ANYONE at all, is interested in how my stories progress, such as _Insomnia_, please, please, PLEASE, come take a look at my livejournal, located in the link below. It revolves around my stories here on , as well as future stories that are in the works. I may also be posting FULL CHAPTERS of _Insomnia_ in the near future, so, if you want to read it sooner, I'll most likely be posting it there, and then here later. :3**

**http : / / disturbedofmind . livejournal . com/ ((You know the drill of copy, paste and eliminate spaces))**

**Also, an interesting question from Assassin's last review, I gotta say. Truthfully, I dunno. I only noticed how "friendlier" Aerrow appeared only until after I read through the posted chapter and I had to LAWL at myself for doing that. I was only writing the damned chapter to get it finished, GOD. xD Honestly, though, I really dunno if this is going to become a "couples" fanfic (I never originally planned for it), like you see in other fanfics (for this fandom) where one of the character's ends up with another character or even an OC. But, if that's kinda what y'all wanna see, I guess…I can try it. **

**I dunno though…Lupin and Aerrow? That'd be kinda…**_**weird**_**, considering he's about four, five years younger than Lupin… D: Well, what do y'all think? Lupin and Aerrow shipping or no couples at all? VOTE FOR IT IN YOUR REVIEW. xD Hahaha…**

**Also, the warehouse setting in the next few chapters or so will be fictional; there are no actual warehouses (to my knowledge) that are "rentable" for a night in my little homely town of Simi Valley. If there are, well…damn, I thought I knew my town better than this. xD **

**Anyway, it's fictional for the sake of the story, so bear with me. PRETEND IT'S REAL; I COMMAND IT. XD**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

**Wilson:** _Beauty often seduces us on the road to truth.  
_**House:** _And triteness kicks us in the nads.  
_**- Wilson and House, _House M.D._**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

It was another late night.

_Brain Stew_ popped up on shuffle. Lupin shifted her headphones back on, and continued to type on her laptop. Then she stopped shortly, her music finally ending. She stopped her music and got up, her headphones lying on the desk. She pulled out her DVD box and began to pull out her movies, paused, then put them back and pulled out the other box, where her DVD box sets were. She pulled out _House: Season Two_ and smiled.

She missed _House_ this week. That made her a little upset, and considering she wouldn't be able to get to it until later this weekend only made her feel worse. She hated missing _House_. But, knowing the wacky schedule right now, it was probably a rerun. She popped out a disc from the set and popped it into her laptop. She started an episode, _House Vs. God_. She needed something to make her laugh, to make her feel relaxed, and what better way than to laugh at House's humor?

She glanced at the clock momentarily, internally groaning. It was nearly two-thirty in the morning. She had taken a shower to help her aching limbs, and it had helped…for a little while, that is. At least she enjoyed her reprieve while it lasted.

Slowly, the time passed, and the episode ended. She felt a little more tired. That was good…maybe she should start heading off to bed…

Halfway through her ritual of going to bed, Lupin stopped. She was in the bathroom, medicine cabinet open, hand halfway up to put away her contact case. She stared at her reflection, not really paying it much any mind. Her lips drew into a thin line before she slammed the medicine cabinet shut, contact case back inside and she stalked outside the bathroom and back into her room. Grabbing her glasses, she pulled herself back into her computer chair and began a dizzyingly mad rush on the computer.

It wasn't solid, but it was a lead she had and she wasn't going to waste it or let it on by.

The book on Walter Drake got her thinking. His evidence on the connections between this world and Atmos was interesting; Piper, earlier, had explained that the geographical area in which her valley resided just happened to be the next pinpoint of entry and exit for their worlds. When Walter Drake had entered, he had ended up in Scotland. Then he traveled the world, making notes in his log, nearly filling the whole thing. The passages were never consistent with the place they had opened last, which made plenty of sense to Lupin. The Earth rotated; the places between the two worlds changed. It made perfect and logical sense. It couldn't be in the same place twice in a row. It was like trying to get struck by lightning twice in the same storm. It would be highly unlikely.

And, after Piper's discovery, Lupin immediately got onto her stepfather's computer—seeing as she no longer had a printer of her—and pulled up maps of her world and showed them to Piper. The young woman reveled in it all, drinking it in. Lupin ended up printing maps of all the continents, including the Arctic as well. Then she had to move onto more detailed geographical maps with longitudes and latitudes specifically (a pain to find), and printed out them as well. Piper took them and began her calculations at once.

How Walter Drake discovered when and how and why was beyond Lupin. She had never thought to really ask; she only asked where it would be next. If the irony weren't enough, it'd be above the mountain pass between her valley and the next; which had once been the only entry into her town and the others surrounding it before the highway had been built. Sure, it'd be in sight of people who were taking a late night drive through the mountain pass, but maybe they'd think it would be a UFO and be written up as nut jobs. Not her problem once they were gone, that was for sure, but if she happened to catch the news, she'd probably sit back, relax, and laugh, knowing the truth of the "strange lights in the sky".

She began pulling her search up on the archive. Yes, it seemed a bit of an odd search, but she had once read a story based in the fandom of _Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles_ about wormholes. It wasn't exactly consistent to this current situation, and well, okay, the situation was rather different, but it was similar, in retrospect. The story itself was eight chapters long, but Lupin didn't bother reading it completely. She skimmed through. Time-travelling… No, there wasn't really any time jumping, but the wormhole made sense. She paused at the end, thinking up on it.

It was similar, she finally concluded. Hopefully, the Storm Hawks wouldn't need to shove their way past an invisible barrier in order to get through to their world like Mikey had to in order to save his family in the story. Finally, she took off her glasses, blearily squinting as she shut off the Web page, and pulled up her music and pushed play, keeping the volume low.

Tomorrow was going to be even longer, she also concluded, shifting her attention from wormholes and world jumping to the Halloween party. It had been planned for too damned long, and she didn't want to see it go up in smoke and flames just because of unexpected guests. Hell, maybe she could even have them help. They'd go out, set up most of the party stuff like the DJ table and the other tables for resting dancers, and then go get ready for quick trick-or-treating and then come back to the party. It seemed harmless and foolproof enough. She did explain to them that she'd been helping plan the party and the Storm Hawks all seemed eager enough to join in on the fun before leaving.

She smiled as she curled up under the covers, letting her thoughts drift to her costume, hanging up in the closet. Oh yeah. This was her pet project and she was going to be _bitching_ in it.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Despite the early hours, Lupin seemed oddly jubilant. She was practically crowing about the party she said she had been planning for months on end; actually, she claimed it had been in the works since LAST Halloween with her friend Kit and Vance, and then it grew to Nomi and Kitsune and others. It was something she had been planning and it seemed important enough. So, while she finished packing up things, Junko offered to help pack the rest of her things into her Camaro.

She said that she'd had too much to do today to risk jeopardizing going to her grandmother's to drop it all off. It'd take too long and they'd need every good hour they could get into helping the preparations. "I'm going to stay at my grandmother's tonight after I see you guys off anyways, so I might as well make just one trip to her house instead of a million of them."

She sighed as she taped another box and he picked up a different. He paused before looking at her, head tilted, frown turning at his lips, concern written on his face. She stared at the box.

"Is…something wrong, Lupin?" He finally asked. She blinked twice, looked up at him and set down the tape, smiling.

"Naw, nothing's wrong. Just…excited. I don't look it, but I am." She continued to beam at him, and then he saw what she meant by excited. Her eyes seemed to have a different shine on them and they certainly were brighter. Not in a literal sense, of course, that would have freaked him out a bit if her eyes just suddenly started to go all glow-y.

Satisfied, he returned the grin, hoisted the box into a more secure grip, and for good measure, picked up the other box she had just finished packing. She seemed ready to protest, probably to tell him that he shouldn't, but closed her mouth and went back to folding laundry, packing it into another box, and pulling out a few more books she had left in her closet and packing them away into a different box.

"Just remember to put the heavy stuff on the bottom!" She called after him after a few seconds pause.

"Okay, you got it!" He called back. Finn passed him on the stairs and gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder and continued his way upstairs, probably to ask if he could do something as well. Spencer was following Finn, most likely to see Lupin and seek some attention from his master. Just a few more hours, and then they'd be home free, he mused.

Home, where Atmos was.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Everything in Lupin's car became a tight fit once everything had been packed away inside the Camaro. It wasn't big on space like the Yukon was, and it certainly became clear why it was taking Lupin so long to even move her belongings from point A to point B. She clearly didn't have the luxury of trunk or back seat space. It was also a mystery as to why she didn't just borrow the Yukon while her parents were away to transport everything… Well, it was, until Stork brought up the subject as Lupin shoved the last pillow into her car, right besides a small spotted cat doll she called "Sneaky".

"Well, that's a good question. The thing is, besides my hating on driving that monster of a vehicle—although I will say that the Topkick is even more monstrous—is the price of its gas. It's more of a gas-guzzler than my Camaro. It's-It's like, I back it out of the drive, I have to fill it up and I pull it back into the drive, I have to fill it up again."

He nodded, and she was at least glad he showed signs of understanding. "It's nothing but a waste of your economy and it's a guzzler on its…transportation energy." He concluded.

"Gasoline." She corrected pointedly. He gave a grimace at her while she paused. "Plus, my parents actually didn't want me using it. I didn't see fit in wasting money to rent a U-Haul van; I'd rather oversee my own move in my own vehicle than drive yet another monstrous truck. That reminds me, I gotta fill up the Yukon before the parents get home…"

And while she went about musing, she turned towards the white gate where she had them all lead their vehicles and began to unlock it. He followed and stood silently by as he waited while she yanked back the gate and it swung open to her bidding, creaking slightly in protest. She jabbed a thumb in the general direction of the backyard. "If you guys want, you should get your rides outta my yard while you can."

He pursed his lips at her, and then nodded in acquiescence before curving the corner sharply and making his way back into the house to let the others know.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The roar of engines filled the morning air and Lupin silently marveled in the sight of each bike thrumming vigorously with power beneath their metal paneling. Okay, she'll admit it now. It was the bikes. It was definitely the bikes that got her interested in these guys. There. She admitted it.

Aerrow leaned on his own bike, checking everything, as if he might find something out of place. He gunned the engine quite a few times, while Radarr was digging around in his little sidecar, throwing a few things out here and there. When he finally found what he needed, he began working busily, Aerrow pointing out a few things and Radarr jumping quickly to assess and repair.

Finn was rubbing the glass panel in front of him, keeping it sparkling clean and grim-free with a huge grin on his face. After he was done polished, he sat back down on the seat and the nose of the bike slid away to reveal the sniper hidden underneath. He leaned forward, checking everything, still grinning that grin before pulling back and retracting the sniper.

Junko was checking the pressure of his tires, or Lupin assumed that was what he was doing. He was hanging around them for a good long while. He got on and shifted his weight, making the bike bounce a bit and he smiled, satisfied before he sat back, relaxing.

Her eyes shifted to Stork, who was currently pushing buttons here and there, his goggles and helmet respectively in place. He glanced at the curious wolf before returning to his work again. The engine gunned and he yelped, pressing hurriedly at another button and the engine's roar dimmed to a dull purr. He relaxed.

Piper had the blades for her scooter bike out and Lupin watched silently as they rotated at a rapid pace while Piper watched momentarily, her lips pursed. Finally she had the blades stopped and returned to their storage and she comfortably reclined herself in the seat.

Lupin stood besides her car, having yet to start it up. She somehow found herself sitting on the back end, watching in awe, in silence as everyone worked before all eyes slowly turned to her, waiting expectantly.

Finally it took an, "_A-hem,_" from an impatient Finn to get the gears in Lupin's head to finally start moving. She snapped out of her reverie, blinking a few times before she nodded in understanding. She grinned a little nervously before getting off of her car.

"All right, just follow me to the, ah, warehouse, and I'll get you all started on your jobs. Everybody got that?"

There was a unanimous round of nods and words of acknowledgement and agreement thrown her way. Lupin nodded once, sharply, in satisfaction and turned to get into her vehicle, Spencer sitting in the front seat. Her snake tank sat in the back seat, comfortably and snugly placed between her two small pillows to cushion it from boxes and the side of her car. Part of her guitar case sat atop the cage, and along with some boxes, and the pillow and doll she had shoved into the back, blocked most of her back window.

She paused and got out; just the Storm Hawks were prepared to jump out of the driveway.

"Hey, you guys?" They stopped and looked to her, the engines quieting down. When she had their attention, she inhaled slowly. "Look, just…just be careful, out of the road, all right? There are some…really stupid drivers out there and I really would hate to see any of you get hit by a car or truck or…anything, really. So just, follow me and remember that red lights mean stop, green is go and yellow is slow down."

"We'll be careful." Aerrow promised. There were reassuring smiles sent her way and Lupin returned it, but on the inside she still felt that dreading fear. There really were stupid drivers on the roads and in all honesty, she didn't know how any of them got their licenses. She hated people on their cell phones, even when they were supposed to have headsets. Lupin never bothered; she always ignored calls when she was driving or when she couldn't, she'd ask for the person to call back or that she'd call back when she wasn't driving. It was habit her friend Bishquet had taught her: don't talk on your phone and drive; you get distracted quite easily and could end up hurting someone or yourself severely for not paying attention to the road.

So, while they got out onto the road and waiting for her, she leaned her head out of the window to see where she was backing out. Spencer was sitting in his seat as silent as a church mouse with his nose pressed against the glass. He sighed deeply as Lupin got onto the road safely and threw her car into drive. When she got to the straightaway, she let her car rip it out with a throaty roar from the engine, and she reveled in the speed.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Thankfully, they got to the warehouse without incident; they had run into no cops, which Lupin was absolutely thankful for. She parked the car and got out, signaling for the other five to park around the back, so that any passing cops wouldn't see the bikes. She was positive now that they weren't street legal and was extremely hesitant to even let them drive them around in broad daylight. It was risky enough as it was and she would have felt safer if night would come soon; it'd be easier to duck out and avoid any bacon that came patrolling along.

The wolf brought everyone inside and wasn't entirely surprised to see Kit and Vance already there, working on the decorations. They absolutely reveled in the Halloween holiday, and had thought this a fabulous idea. They were one of the real reasons this warehouse idea was possible, although, the idea for the warehouse had changed consistently. For the longest time, they were bent on having it turned into a temporary maze, but it would mean they'd have miss work and college in order to accomplish the construction.

Plus, the costs would have been outrageous, Lupin had pointed out a few times, not including the food and drink for the maze workers. It would've been interesting enough; Lupin had a bit of experience working in a haunted house maze, but she knew also from experience it would've taken much too long, considering the time it would've needed. Not everyone could have spared the expense, so the maze idea had been tragically cast aside and the idea of a dance party took its place instead.

"Hey, sweetie!" Kit greeted the wolf warmly, pulling Lupin into a bear hug. Lupin gripped the young woman just as tightly back, grinning widely before turning to Vance when Kit released her.

"Hey, kiddo. You going off again to get the food?"

"Yeah, I came to drop off some help. Just tell them what they need to do and they'll get it done." Lupin replied. Kit looked to the group behind the wolf, raising a brow slightly as Junko waved to her and Vance cheerily. Kit pulled Lupin to the side while Vance stepped forward and began to greet them warmly, instructing them where to go and what to do.

"Um, Shadow-chan, can I ask you a question?"

Lupin paused briefly, feeling her gut twist inside her, but she ignored it and nodded. "Yeah, sure, what is it?"

"Well…you know, I normally wouldn't say anything, but…those people seem a bit…off. You're not hanging out with any weird people, are you?"

"You mean weirder than our group?" Lupin chuckled. Kit's face made Lupin stop laughing and the wolf sighed.

"Okay, look, I…ran into some trouble. Not like gang trouble or anything, but, uh… How do I put this?"

After a bit of reluctance and casting glances over her shoulder, Lupin pulled Kit out of hearing range from anyone and explained, quietly and quickly, what was going on. Kit stared in disbelief and perhaps even awe. There was definitely a gleam in her eyes behind her glasses.

"Shadow…this is big. I mean, really big. _Characters_ from a _show_, here, alive, and not…cartoon characters!" She said, eyes wide in disbelief. She scanned the expansive room, staring out at Aerrow and Radarr, and then moving along to Piper, Finn and Stork, and lastly Junko.

"I know, I know, I know! I didn't know—I didn't know at first, but I figured it out, like, almost immediately after I met them. I mean…Kit, they needed help. I couldn't just leave them."

Kit appraised the wolf's face, and then glanced back at where the Storm Hawks were working. Junko was helping Vance set up the stand for the DJ table and she pursed her lips slightly before looking back at Lupin, a smile gracing her lips.

"I know you couldn't, sweetie. But, I just can't help but think that they might not get home."

"I…know. I know. I'm kind of fearing that too. But, this guy, Walter Drake—,"

"Might be a quack." Kit shrugged her shoulders. Lupin's shoulders, in turn, sagged. She'd been afraid of hearing that from someone. She honestly wanted to believe in this old, dead guy who was something-hundred years gone and that was left was his book. Kit contemplated her next choice of words before speaking again.

"But, he might also be able to help. I mean, he could be the real deal, if that book you found at the library helps. I'm just…REALLY surprised you even found it. I would've thought an old log book like that would be in a museum or something."

"You know, I was thinking the same thing. It should be in some sort of…library like in Washington D.C. or in the Natural Museum of History or something."

"Or an antique shop. But the thing is, you found it, so now you know what to do with them. You're seeing them off later tonight, right?" Lupin nodded. "All right…make sure that you keep everything on schedule and don't forget or they'll be stuck here for…"

"A year. Or at least, about a year. Then they'll have to find out where the next opening will be and when. It's…kinda complicated."

"I figured. Just set your phone to a really loud alarm and keep checking it."

Lupin nodded and actually dug out her phone to do so at that moment. Between clicking buttons, she looked up at Kit, smiling.

"Thanks. I appreciate the help. But just…don't tell them, all right?"

"Don't tell them—oh, right. That…they technically don't exist here?"

"Yeah, that." Lupin grimaced. It sounded horrible when it came from someone else other than herself. She was having déjà vu all over again, concerning the movie _Stranger Than Fiction_ with Will Farrell. It was a rather odd, but enlightening movie that she'd occasionally click on when it happened to be playing. However, she swallowed her discomfort and nodded before checking the clock on her phone. "Crap, I gotta go get the snack foods and drinks. List, I know I have it somewhere…"

"Sweetie, breathe. Just breathe, all right? Everything will be fine. The party will be a hit, and your new friends are going home. Just breathe." Kit smiled reassuringly at the wolf and placed calming hands on Lupin's shoulder and momentarily, Lupin allowed the tension in her to drop. Finally she nodded once more and put her cell phone back in her bag.

"Anything specific you want to request while I'm out and about?" She finally asked.

"You know what I like. Just make sure you don't kill anyone on the road, okay?" Kit joked and they both laughed.

"No guarantees." Lupin teased back before she saw herself out. She hopped in her car, Spencer wagging his tail excitedly at her, expecting to be let out. She stared at him.

"Oh. Right." She got out and closed the door, rounding to her dog's side. "Gotta put you somewhere, cuz I'm too lazy to take you home."

Spencer jumped out and began sniffing the ground, moving away, although he came back when Lupin barked for him to. She looked about, frowning, wondering if there was a back room she could put him in temporarily—

"Hey, wait!"

Lupin turned at the familiar voice, watching as Aerrow jogged up to her, Radarr at his heels. Spencer broke from Lupin's side to run up to the young man, and to sniff at Radarr. Radarr growled and swiped at Spencer, who backed off with a panting grin. Lupin called him back and he trotted over to her and sat down, looking up expectantly at her with those warm, liquid brown eyes while she petted him absently.

"Yeah?"

"You need some room to make for the groceries?"

Lupin stared. "How did you—?" She didn't even bother finishing. She knew who told him. "Yeah. I…guess I do. I never thought of that."

He grinned, as if he already had a solution for her…and he probably did.

"Well, I can come up with an answer." He replied. Spencer shifted closer to Lupin. She scratched him behind his ears while she frowned. If it meant going back and unpacking a lot of boxes at her house… She internally groaned.

"How?" She finally sighed heavily. Then she glanced back at her car, realizing she still needed a place for Spencer. _Didn't even think it through, did you? Should've left some stuff at home, as well as the dog…_

And if it meant risking the streets again, she didn't want Aerrow caught on his bike.

"Think you can handle the dog on your lap?"

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

**Hey, I shouldn't need to say this, but here I am doing it anyways: review at the end, or no updates. I like to have more than just one or two reviews per chapter, just like everyone else, ya know. It takes like, a minute to do. Not that long, huh? :D **


	10. Plug In Baby

**Chapter Nine:  
****Plug-In Baby**

**Reviewers:**

**Wicca in Training**

**Tiggeranddash**

**Saerphe**

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**Killjoy3000**

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**Assassin. of. the. Shadows**

**Clouds on Monday**

_**Disclaimer: **_**All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them. **

**Note: Thought I'd give y'all a break and have the Storm Hawks featured a little more prominently. :3 **

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

**Olivia: **_What are you doing here?_**  
Walter:**_ We're trying to plug a hole in the universe. What are _you_ doing here?_**  
-Olivia and Walter, "**_**Fringe**_**"**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

"Do you really think it's natural?"

The question, in question, had come right out of the blue. Piper was reviewing some of Walter Drake's older notes, leafing through the journal with such care and precision, she was almost afraid it'd crumble into dust. It was, after all, a couple of hundred years old that had somehow survived the test of time. Not to mention, it had been was passed down from generation to generation in Drake's family. _And now it's with us._ Piper thought incredulously._ It was like they were waiting for us, waiting to give it back. But why? Why us? _

To back up to the beginning, it had started the day after the rink, the morning after the commotion with Lupin's not-Widow's Serpent, and her explaining what it really was to them. Shortly after that fiasco, when everything from breakfast was cleaned up, she announced that she had class, and after that, she had work. Of course, even she looked ready to go, she stopped short in the living room, staring at the Storm Hawks, looking uncertainly at them. The TV was playing—an interesting movie with chest-bursting monsters and creepy aliens that would surely send Stork into a catatonic coma by the end of it via paranoia on high alert—when she had told them of her day's schedule. She looked rather torn between staying and going off to leave the Storm Hawks alone.

But, after a collective accountability of agreement that one, they were pretty sore from the excessive bout of exercise—especially the amount of woes and bemoaning from Finn—and two, they'd like some time relax. Lupin had still looked rather guilty until Piper told her they'd be fine. Aerrow cast her that knowing, friendly look, and after a moment of staring one another down, Lupin had finally left. However, it was not before she offered her phone number and a quick breakdown of how to use the house phone. "If anything, anything comes up at all, give me a call. I don't care if I'm in class or at work, just call me. I promise I'll be right over."

The house was rather quiet after that, or at least, as quiet as it could get with the television blaring. Really, it was a curious and explicitly awesome invention from this world, much better than the projector they had on the _Condor_. The colors were crisp, clear and solid, there was no worry for films tearing or breaking up occasionally, making gaps in their watching. They suddenly wished they had television in Atmos, and it'd be sorely missed when they went back.

It was in the middle of another movie—this one a little more tame for tastes, something about pirates and sailing around looking for some island called Isla de Muerta—that Piper had emerged from her readings with the question. And that question was about the likely nature of, well, something. The others hadn't known what she was talking about, even when she looked at them all expectantly after a few awkward moments of her waiting for an answer.

"What're you on about, now?" Finn asked, lounging in one of the ottomans, legs splayed out nice and straight. It hurt too much to try and bend them, or move in general. In fact, he didn't want to get up from his bed that morning, or go down the stairs; each step was rather painful and heavy like lead. Piper shot him a glance, before frowning as she began rereading the text she was fixated on.

'_The portal had not appeared like some believed it would: It did not become a shimmering gateway showing images of another world, nor did it appear as a tunnel-like appendix and let out like the tubing of my engine does from the crystal compartment to the actual engine to power it. It was not a doorway at all, nothing even remotely close. The only indication of this portal, of which happenstance I have come across, was the utter and complete failing of all my navigation instruments, save for the actual ship, as they began to systematically die all at once, as if I had crossed over into the Great Expanse. I knew that I had indeed not crossed into the territory of the unknown Great Expanse, but somewhere else. It was what I had only dreamed of, what I had been waiting for. _

_The only instrument that worked, for a time, was the tracking device I had devised specifically for this purpose. It too died, soon enough, almost as soon as I crossed over. _

_I had found it. _

_My only problems were my naiveté and my nonexistent concerns in getting back home. Not long after everything that has come to pass recently, at the very least…not after everything has fallen to pieces. I had once thought, that if I found this world, and proved my theories, I would rebuild what I had broken, what I had lost I would restore with this. _

_But I was naïve and foolish. _

_I am now currently stranded in this alien world, where no terras exist, oceans of water are expansive beyond imagination, and humans are the dominant species, no Wallops or Merbs or Raptors to be had. I now wonder what I was thinking when I had first came across the ancient text referring to our ancestors mingling with alien peoples millennia ago.'_

She frowned at the messages within the text. Alien peoples especially had her unnerved as well as what Walter Drake had mentioned about something being broken, something he had lost. What was it, exactly? She felt as if it was on the tip of her tongue, something she'd read a long time ago, but couldn't recall clearly. But the fact that Walter Drake had actually been looking for these portals…

"Do we think what, Piper?"

The question, having been repeated by Aerrow, brought Piper out of her musings. "I'm sorry?"

"You asked if it was natural. Do we think of what's natural?"

She frowned, then recalled her original train of thoughts and buried her nose back in the book, brows knit. "I just don't get it. We all know that Walter Drake was famous for finding a lot of terras we know of now. We know that he helped establish a connection between humans, Merbs, Wallops, at one point in time Raptors, and several other species. He's studied abroad, and was there right when the Sky Knights were formed. But there's a lot we don't know, or should I say, history today doesn't know." She frowned, pointing vaguely at a passage. "It says here that he was purposely looking for portals to Lupin's world, to here! It's not verbatim, but that's the gist. Why would he be looking for it? Is it really a natural occurrence like we believe it is, or…or did he make the portal himself?"

The last question hung heavy in the air. Everyone stilled and their attention, for once, was not on the big flat screen television. No one paid attention to the pirates dueling in a cave full of treasure, never mind if they were skeletal figures in torn, ragged clothing when bathed in moonlight now. Eyes turned to look at Piper instead and she still had her frown in place, looking back and forth between the hungry stares and the book in her hands.

"What if he was making a portal to connect between this world and Atmos?" She reiterated the question, looking between each face staring at her.

"But…why? Why would he do that?"

"He said something about making a mistake, something that ruined his reputation. I know I've heard about it, but from where? And another thing…it says something about ancient peoples mingling with ours a long time ago. What if this isn't a coincidence? What if Lupin's world had once contacted our people in Atmos, hundreds or maybe even thousands of years ago? Maybe to fix whatever mistake he's made, Drake wanted to reopen a portal to mend whatever it was he'd done."

"That…would make sense, if he knew what he was doing. He _was_ an explorer, so maybe he came across something that told him how to do it?"

"But no crystals can do that! They can't create portals like that, not to my knowledge, at least."

"Maybe it's the Helix Crystal?"

Eyes turned towards Finn, slow and boggled-looking expressions melting seamlessly into place. The blonde sharpshooter raised a questioning brow, blinked once and said, "What? You're always going on about crystals, Piper. You said something about it being rare?"

"Well…yeah, Finn. I just didn't know you knew about it." Piper replied, stunned at his memory. Finn shrugged.

"I mean, I know I'm not a big expert and all, but rare crystals are usually the kind that're used for wacky stuff, right?"

She remained dubious, but slowly nodded. "It…would make sense, yes…but no one really even knows if it even exists!"

"Truth always begins in lies, Piper." Stork said ominously, eyes narrowed as a twitchy grin slowly grew on his face. "All rumors we hear around the Atmos? They may be rumors, but there's always one constant factor: it came from somewhere, the source of the truth and only gets convoluted over time and stories change. For all we know, the Helix Crystal, or maybe even some other stone or crystal like it could exist somewhere out in the Atmos."

Piper let Stork's words sink in, and as she absorbed the information, Junko piped up.

"Yeah, but if there really was a crystal like that…wouldn't someone say something or let people know about it? It's a pretty big discovery. Remember the ruins on Terra Xoam? Everyone knew about those, but not what was inside it until we got there."

"That's a pretty good point, Junko, but you also have to remember, something that big is also something greedy people want to keep to themselves. Walter Drake was trying to figure out how to make a portal, for who knows what kind of reasons, but at least he wanted to make it known to Atmos. Other people, like Domiwick, though…they might keep the best things to themselves and let the public know about only the surface details. A portal to another world would be a pretty big thing to hide, though…"

Thoroughly stumped, the Storm Hawks had now completely missed the last scenes of the pirate movie they were watching, no longer interested in it. Instead, they thought on Walter Drake and the information regarding his disappearance. It hadn't been an accident, that much was for sure. It had been on purpose, but to what extent and for what mistake he was trying to amend?

"Piper…you said that our people might have once interacted with the people of this world? From Drake's journal, I mean." Aerrow motioned towards the journal. Piper nodded, drawing her brows down a little.

"Yeah, but…that can't be right, I mean…" she stopped there, rereading before she said, "Oh, my…Aerrow, look at this. Ancient texts. That means somewhere in Atmos, Drake found something that said we once intermingled with one another! That means…"

"That means portals did exist, and maybe not even one-a-year ones, maybe even ones that can possibly be opened on purpose."

"Then that's what he was doing. He was trying to figure out how to do it like…like those before him."

The excitement lit up in her eyes and she shot up to her feet. "We've got to get back to the _Condor_!"

"Uh…we can't? Crazy government that wants to shoot us out of the sky if we try, remember?"

Piper made a face at Finn, before turning towards the phone sitting on the table. "But we can't just sit here, Finn. I think I know where I read about Drake's mistake, and I might have it on the _Condor_!" She hesitated before picking it up. It was just like a radio transmission machine, minus the big box set, really. She remembered Lupin's instructions and picked up the piece of paper with her number on it before Aerrow stopped her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hang on a second here! Before we go getting Lupin in trouble, why don't we read some more? Maybe there're more clues in it. Maybe he mentions his mistake directly, and from there, more pieces to the puzzle will fall into place."

Piper, with her fingers hovering over the buttons, hesitated at Aerrow's behest. She honestly wanted to go outside, get on her Heli-Scooter and ride off to the _Condor_, but she remembered Lupin's warnings of staying below the radar. She remembered Finn's warning not even two minutes ago. She also remembered that getting shot out of the sky was not something she wanted to have on her list of things to do while she was still alive. She glanced at the book tightly clenched in her other hand, feeling torn between staying and reading the journal, when she had other sources of information that could help them sitting in the Condor not even half an hour away.

Finally, she relented grudgingly and nodded, setting the phone down. Maybe Aerrow was right. Maybe the problems she faced were addressed in the book, like what kind of crystal Drake had used or how he found the portal even. Perchance he'd even mention what he'd done wrong, what problem he wanted to alter. But, in the back of her mind, Piper had to wonder as she sat down and tried to settle down to read again, what kind of mistake was it that was so bad, so heinous, that Drake had to escape to another world in order to fix it?

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Lupin called on her way to her work to check in on the Storm Hawks. At first, Aerrow had tried to answer. It turned out he accidentally hung up. When he tried a second time, he succeeded in hearing a confused, "Uh…hello?" before that too accidentally got lost by pressing the End Call button. But, the third time was the charm and Piper had deduced that no more clicking of other buttons was the way to go.

After she exchanged quick pleasantries with Piper, the young woman hung up, eyed the phone with a mystified look, and put it back down on the table.

"Aren't we going to tell her what we found out?" Aerrow pressed, surprised that nothing more than a simple hello and goodbye passed between the two.

"Well…like you said, there might be more clues we can decipher, or maybe just plain answers, you know? I'm still looking, although there isn't much else to find. He didn't exactly inset entries on a day-to-day basis, he sometimes went days or even a few weeks without penning in an entry." Piper said, her face scrunched in concentration as she took Drake's journal back into her hands. She began leafing through. "There're small mentions here and there, but I think he was afraid of someone else reading this. He might have hidden anything worthwhile."

"Meaning…?"

Piper, momentarily distracted, lifted her gaze to look back at Finn. He waved his hand in circles, brow raised, and an expectant expression on his face. She pursed her lips, before turning her nose back into the book.

"Meaning, Finn, he must've used cryptic ways to hide anything useful to outside eyes. Like, he might use a cooking recipe to hide an equation or maybe a phrase, an expression, or a whole sentence, to hide what he really meant to say."

"So…he hid everything using recipes?" Junko supplemented curiously. Stork hissed out a sigh.

"Essentially, that means it could take her a while to figure out what is significant and what isn't, which means we could be here even longer than just this Saturday night."

Aerrow nodded. "Stork's right, Piper. As much as we'd like to know why or how he might've possibly found out about the portals, finding out where the next one is more important."

"Oh, I already figured that out." Piper said nonchalantly as she stepped away towards the fish aquarium. A gaggle of angel fish, clown fish and other brightly colored fished gawked at Piper as she gave them a quick glance. They reminded her of the fish back home in Atmos on Terra Tropica. It made her somewhat homesick for Atmos and for a vacation that they hadn't indulged in for a long while.

Behind her, there was a collective stunned silence before Finn blurted, "You _did_? Why didn't you _tell us_?"

That snapped her out of her daze before Piper turned back around. "Oh, right…it was last night before I went to bed. I was looking over the coordinates and figured out where ours were, and I had Lupin print me up a bunch of maps. They're upstairs in her room. Hold on, I'll go get them."

With a smile and sharp pivot, Piper quickly exited the living room, and left. A few minutes later, she returned with a handful of papers, ten in all, with colorful geographical pieces of maps on all of them. Piper set them on the table, and picked up the top page. It was already marked and scribbled on with pen.

"Before I went to sleep, Lupin and I went over everything, and after cross-referencing, I deduced that our next shot at getting home will be here." She pointed at a spot on the map where a big, red X was marked on the map. "We entered somewhere just outside of California's major cities, Los Angeles, and we'll have to reenter Atmos in the same general area. Unfortunately, since none of our instruments are working, there's not much use of tracking where it's going to be."

"Then how will we know where to go?" Aerrow questioned, looking puzzled as he crossed his arms over his chest. Radarr settled beside Piper and reviewed the map, sniffing at the air as he scrunched his brow up and a similar puzzled expression on the creature's face took place.

"Fortunately, I have a theory. Remember how our instruments began to die as we got closer to the portal, and eventually died completely when we crossed over?"

"Well, yeah, it was kinda hard to ignore." Junko nodded. Stork grimaced at the memory, muttering low under his breathe.

"Then shouldn't the reverse be true about us going back to Atmos?" Piper grinned. "The closer we get to the portal back to Atmos should begin powering up those same instruments, and when we cross over, everything should be back up again."

Her grin was infectious, and all of her teammates grinned back at her—save for one: Stork. He eyed the map with a quiet, sullen look on his face before he lifted his gaze back up at Piper. "I just have one question to ask. If all our instruments are dead, then how is it that the _Condor_ is still running on its engine power? How would we be able to get back up in the air…if all this is true?"

Everyone looked the Merb, their excitement lost and he stared back at the crestfallen looks. He cleared his throat. "Let me rephrase that. How do we know that, after this extended period of time here, that the _Condor_'s engines won't start back up? We haven't even so much as tried since we landed. If crystals don't work the same here, who's to say that they haven't finally died by now?"

Despite the pessimistic ideals thrown their way, they knew Stork had a point, and a valid one at that. He was right, of course, what if the _Condor_ couldn't fly? What if, after all this planning, this brilliant deduction of information, _everything they'd found_, what if it was all for naught. It brought them down a few levels, and perhaps even brought up a sour note. It would be like how they had first found the _Condor_: a useless husk, a shadow of her former self, broken and flightless at the bottom of the Wastelands, her wings clipped, metaphorically speaking.

"We can't just expect everything to go according to plan. Nothing is ever that simple. For all we know, the _Condor_ could be useless, and where would that lead us? Fly on our Skimmers? What if they're dead by now, too?" Stork continued. Princess to his left whined and for a moment, the Merb was distracted. The little terrier danced at his feet, whining, ears laid flat to her head. He eyed her for a moment longer before letting out a sigh and moving towards the sliding glass door and opening it. Immediately the little terrier took off outside to do her doggie business, but not before giving the parked Skimmers Stork had just spoken of quick curious sniffs.

He especially eyed his Stork-Mobile with a rather soft look, a wistful expression. All that work, for nothing, if he was right about his theory…

"I guess we should remedy that, then, because you're right, Stork. We should check to see if things will go according to plan. The _Condor_'s engine crystals are pretty big and if all the smaller things died first, then who's to say the engine crystals aren't next, if just a little slower to die?"

The sullen expression Stork had adjusted to still remained in place, but a thoughtfulness crossed his features for a few moments. Then he nodded a few times. "I…suppose we could try to kick start the engines, see how far along the drainage of the crystals' powers are. If we're lucky, and that's one in a…very large number, then maybe we'll have just enough juice to get us back to Atmos."

"And maybe when we're back in Atmos, everything will be restored."

"Not likely, we'll probably drop right out of the sky shortly after arriving, but hey, whatever keeps your hopes up," Stork said casually after closing the door when Princess trotted back inside. The terrier immediately set forth to leap onto the couch beside Radarr and Princess. Radarr pet the dog a few times, matching her whine with his own.

Aerrow nodded a few times, looking over his squadron's faces. Despite the downer news and theories, he knew he had to keep their hopes up. "When Lupin gets back, we'll get things started up and go back to the _Condor_ to check on the engine crystals. Piper, that was some great work with deciphering where we needed to go. Really, it was."

Piper smiled in spite of herself, puffing a little with pride.

"For now, though, we should check on our Skimmers. If we can't get them to the Condor, then we'll be in big trouble. Let's get outside."

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Relief overwhelmed the Storm Hawks as they filed back inside the house, the television still going on, Princess still occupying the couch. All their rides still worked. Piper had been stunned. Stork, less so, but he seemed content enough to see that his Stork-Mobile was still functional, at least. "For now," he said ominously, his eye giving a rather large twitch after.

That, at the very least, was a good start for hope. If their bikes worked, then who was to say that the _Condor_ wouldn't work? It was hope, a glimmer of it that things would work out in the end, that things wouldn't be so bad, that they would make it to Saturday night. They had their coordinates, they had their destination, they had their rides and hopefully their ship functional and ready to go.

Now all they had to do was bide their time and wait. It seemed like it should all be impossible with everything's that's happened to them over the past few days, but then again…there were a lot of things that should've been impossible for them. And yet, here they were, pushing the boundaries once more, testing the universe and basically sticking it to the same universe. The military would've called it adapting and overcoming. The Storm Hawks liked to call it something else.

Improvising.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

**This was a rather short chapter, but one that definitely has plenty of questions and little in the ways of answers. :3 What mistake did Drake make that forced him into looking for radical ways to make up for it? How did he find out about the portals in the first place? Why didn't Drake go back home with his family when he had a chance to? These'll all eventually be answers. Stay tuned for the next installation of **_**Fringe**_**! **


	11. Party Planners

**Chapter Ten:  
Party Planners**

**Reviewers:**

**BlueSapphireGirl**

**Clouds on Monday**

**Saerphe **

**Page-Mistress **

**Magus732**

**Silveromance**

**XxXTwilight-SinXxX**

_**Disclaimer: **_**All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them. **

**Note: Another revised chapter, I am on a roll! Sorry for those who are reading these odd notes and asking yourselves, "Wait, what? I thought these were the original chapters!" Obviously from previous notes, these aren't. I've been rewriting them. And I'm quite proud of how I'm redoing them, too. :3 For those who're new readers, enjoy, my older readers, thanks for tuning in! **

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

_Up until the punching, it was a real nice party.  
_**- Kaylee, "**_**Firefly**_**"**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

It was late when Lupin got back. She managed to pick up a bunch of fast food from In 'N Out on her way home, and of course, the procession of food as a humble apology and peace offering was taken without regrets. "I would've come earlier after I got out of class, but I had a few errands to run, and, well…" She shrugged listlessly as they all devoured the mass of hamburgers and fries. She wasn't sure what the Storm Hawks had wanted, so she got the basics: double stacked burgers and fries, with the works on all of them.

While they ate, Piper filled in Lupin on what she had deduced. After everything was explained, the young woman grinned at Piper and said, "That's brilliant, I don't think even I would've gotten that far!"

"Yeah, well, we'll need to get to the _Condor_ tomorrow to check on how drained the engine crystals are. We'll have enough juice to get our Skimmers back there on Saturday night, just so long as we don't use them until then. I hope the same thing goes for the Condor."

"If your Skimmers are doing fine, then I don't see why the _Condor_ shouldn't." Lupin nodded. "But I'll get you there. I just got class in the morning and after that I'll take you before my afternoon class. I got the evening free, too, so we'll be able to get some more things done, too."

"That's great, Lupin." Aerrow smiled. Radarr gave a squawk of approval and a toothy smile with a piece of lettuce sticking out from between his teeth. Piper giggled, and soon others saw what it was and joined in. Radarr figured out what it was she and the others were laughing at and scowled, giving off an annoyed growl at them. It was, for the moment, a thankful distraction from thinking about the up and coming couple of days.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The next day, true to her word, Lupin took Piper and Stork back to the _Condor_. Stork went to the bridge, while Piper with Lupin in tow, took the engine room. The _Condor_'s engines were still full of plenty of juice, but as Stork predicted, their energy was seeping away.

"It's probably because your world's energy sources stem from other natural resources, anything but crystals," Piper theorized. Lupin had agreed, telling her that the main sources of power were things such as oil and electricity.

"Although, we're trying to be more 'green' nowadays, using things like solar power to get by on things."

Afterwards, Piper and Stork both deduced that they'd have plenty of power to reach the outskirts of Los Angeles for their trip back to Atmos on Saturday night. It was a relief to hear, when the news was relayed to the rest of the squadron. Thankfully, the next few days were also low-key and smooth. No other unexpected surprises were forthcoming, thankfully enough. The schedule was thus: Lupin would have school or work, depending on the day, and the Storm Hawks would lay low in Lupin's house. It had come out as a unanimous decision from them all, agreeing that any future endeavors or exposure would really muck things up if the wrong ears gathered any more information on them all.

"We'll be back in Atmos soon enough," Aerrow had added enthusiastically after having heard that the _Condor_'s engine crystals were still viable for flight, even if they were still draining slowly of their power. When asked for any theories concerning why this was happening, Piper was only stumped and felt helpless as she could only shrug her shoulders, not even give veritable theories. It irked her to no ends that she couldn't even do that much, and even Lupin was stuck in a rut about it and could only offer her own half-assed theory about it.

"Maybe it's because none of the crystals in my world have any energy-giving properties and your crystals are slowly just…dying and turning into something like ours?"

Piper only seemed minimally satisfied by that offer of help, but not ungrateful. It was Friday morning that Lupin changed up the routine. She was busy loading up the Yukon with bags of supplies and even a covered object that looked suspiciously like a body. The Storm Hawks were busy gathering downstairs, drawn to the fresh scents of roasting coffee and cooked foods. She called to them from atop the stairs, saying she'd already eaten, that there was plenty of food abound for them.

"Ruttin' morning, gotta get on up early now and work on the warehouse. _Gorram_ it, they shoulda had this done yesterday or the day before!"

The odd curses here and there that filtered from Lupin marching inside and out the house brought them forward as they all finished eating. She didn't even notice them until Junko asked, "Is something wrong, Lupin?"

She almost dropped her bags, but Aerrow leapt forward and snagged them at the same time as she did. She nearly hit his head with hers, but drew back just in time and nearly fell backwards when she saw that his face was a little closer than she'd realized. He grinned and gathered the bags in his hands and she limply dropped her hands at her side, still rather stupefied until she remembered Junko's question.

"Uh, yeah, things're fine. I just gotta load all this _go-se_ up into the truck and take it to the warehouse where we're having the ruttin' party."

"Party?" Finn's eyes lit up. "You never mentioned a party!"

"Yes she did, Finn. She said Saturday night we'd be going to a party first and then she'd see us off afterwards. Going out with a bit of a bang, I'll admit," Piper chuckled and the two women shared a grin at Finn's expense. He didn't seem to care, as he was still hung up on the word 'party' as he prattled on.

"—and where there's a party, there's babes, and where there's babes, the Finn-ster is sure to follow! What time is it and can it come sooner?" He was in an absolutely ecstatic mood all of a sudden, screw the early morning hours! Lupin's grin turned wry as she thought; _Well at least one of us can be excited even in the wee hours of the morning._

Then she gave his excitement a quick pause and looked at the bags in Aerrow's hands. She dug out her phone and checked the messages she'd gotten from her friend Mikey—ironically, a male nickname for a female, but who was Lupin to judge?—who claimed that several of their help had flaked out and called in busy for the day. Lupin snorted. Right. Busy sleeping in.

She had originally thought they'd all have to stay an extra couple of hours to try and get everything done…Lupin hesitated, however, before thinking about opening her big mouth. _Well…as long as they stay inside and not wander around outside, I guess things'll be fine…I mean, I can trust my friends. They won't say anything. I hope. _

Lupin sighed as she closed her phone and pocketed it once more before relaying her concerns and asked if they wouldn't mind helping out. The warehouse was rather large and some of the things that should've gotten done in the past week hadn't been touched.

"I know I'm asking a lot, and I feel bad, but the help we were promised kinda flaked on us. I wouldn't ask if I wasn't, like, you know…kinda desperate?" She added sheepishly, biting her lip. Then she felt even worse about asking. "Look, don't worry about it, forget I asked, I shouldn't have even—,"

"We'll do it." Aerrow interrupted. Lupin blinked at his smiling face. "You're the one who's helping us, remember? Least we can do is to give you a little help here and there in return."

The logic was rather simple, if childish, to consider. It was definitely cliché, all right, and Lupin said so. Aerrow only laughed.

"Well, even so, it's true isn't? You're doing something for us, we'll do something in return. It seems only fair."

"Equivalent exchange, then," Lupin mused aloud, not really paying much heed to what she was saying. When she realized what odd stares she was being given in return, she shook her head. "Don't worry about it. That's the last of the stuff I agreed to bring."

"What was the body thing you were carrying out earlier?" Junko inquired as Lupin did her last rounds of the house, shooed everyone out, and locked up behind them.

"Ah, that? Well, there's this thing that my friends Kit and Vance do every year and that's to have their Freddy Krueger up and at 'em for the haunted house thing they do for Halloween. Freddy's vacating their house for the party in the warehouse, so I thought it'd be funny if I brought one more horror film guy and that's Jason Voorhees."

"Who?"

Lupin's smile broadened as she threw the Yukon into drive and slowly eased out into the streets. She briefly gave explanations as to who the two big movie masters of murder were, their movie history, and the strange crossover featuring the two.

"So…they basically kill people for no apparent reason."

"You didn't really hear me, Finn. I said they both kill out of revenge: Freddy for being burned alive after being accused of child molestation and Jason kills people afer his mama was killed. Well, then again, his mama thought her kid was dead, drowned at a camp by the negligence of the counselors and all…" Lupin stopped herself from going off on a technical details tangent before turning down the street that would lead them to the warehouse.

"And you _watch_ this stuff?"

"Yeah, they're great movies. Awesome gore factor, man," Lupin chuckled, before she registered the tone in which Piper had asked her in: disgusted was the biggest factor in it. Morbid fascination covered another part of her tone, while a sliver of it was awe. She pulled up to the warehouse, not even having realized they'd arrived until she parked. "Er, well, these kinds of movies aren't for anyone. And don't worry, Jason and Freddy are both movie characters, they're not real. The mannequins we got don't come to life none, so you don't have to worry about them."

She cut the engine and inside, they could all hear the ticking, but none paid it much heed as they immediately began piling out. They were greeted almost just as quickly by several familiar faces that filed outside the warehouse to see what the hubbub was about. After getting the trunk propped open, Lupin traversed the cracked asphalt of the parking lot and embraced Kit and Vance, then Mikey and Chris all filed out. For a few minutes, the five joked around, caught up quickly, and then Lupin turned on her heel and began helping the Storm Hawks unload.

She was glad to see the Storm Hawks relaxing, knowing that they could trust Lupin's friends, just as Lupin could trust them as well. She knew they weren't stupid. She remembered how she'd been approached by her friends, curiosity as well as knowing glittering in their eyes as they regarded her, questioned her, pressing for answers regarding the Storm Hawks.

At first, Lupin had been unwilling to answer when they began questioning her the other day at school, when she unsurprisingly hadn't brought Aerrow and Piper or any of the other Storm Hawks with her. It was the first time that week she had been alone without any of the squadron, and of course, the perfect opportunity her more observant of companions took to wheedle her for answers. It was also perhaps a contributing factor she hadn't gone back to the house at all yesterday; she was still too embarrassed and perhaps ashamed that she had more confidence to confide in her friends about the truth of the Storm Hawks than the Storm Hawks themselves. _How can I tell them, exactly, that they don't exist in this world, anyways? This shouldn't even be possible! There's no way that our worlds are connected, it's…it's impossible! _

Throughout the morning and working into the afternoon, Lupin's mind was buzzing with correlations and theories about the Storm Hawks, Walter Drake, Atmos, the television show and how any of it could be possible.

_How can our world and Atmos be connected, if in fact, the Storm Hawks are fictional characters, and their world is nothing but a figment of the imagination of the people who created them? How can our worlds be connected? I mean, how in the hell could Walter Drake's journal even _exist_ in this universe, when in this same universe, they're _cartoon characters_? It doesn't make _sense_! _

The contradictions continued to pile up in her head, and the more they presented themselves, the less she had in substantial answers. Her friends, while they were not exactly fans of the show or barely knew about the Canadian-made cartoon, they were sympathetic enough. "We'll keep quiet about them, if you want, Shadow-chan," Kit had said during their breaks between classes, patting the younger woman's hand. "Besides, they're going home anyways. You're doing a good thing for them. Don't ruin it by telling them."

_Easier said than done, Kit,_ Lupin thought grumpily, casting a sidelong glance at her longtime friend. It made Lupin sick to her stomach that she had to keep it secret from the Storm Hawks. Even if she did tell the Storm Hawks, hypothetically speaking, she knew that Piper at the very least would catch onto the discrepancies Lupin herself was worrying herself sick over. The possibilities of it all, the how, when, where and whys of everything. Why this, why that, how can this work, how can that work or why doesn't it do this but it does that…

Everything rattled along her mind, and she couldn't get any closer to substantial answers.

Lupin finally gave up trying to figure it out. It was giving her a headache for one, and second, she had much more to worry about besides the Storm Hawks. The party, while it was important at the moment, it wasn't the most important thing in the whole, wide world, either. She had other things to worry about, and they'd be taken care of, as soon as the Storm Hawks were back in their world, back in their fiction-non-fiction world, Lupin told herself.

_Just be patient, get past today and tomorrow, and everything will be back to normal soon enough. _

It wasn't enough to keep going over a checklist in her head, though. She wanted everything done, everything out of the way, everything to simply be accomplished so that final home stretch could be achieved. Lupin sighed as she found herself finally stopping after several hours of nonstop work to survey the warehouse.

All the decorations were in place, the tables were set up, the stage was pimped out and the DJ stand ready to go. All that was needed there was Alan and his computers and surround sound speaker system to be put into place. The lights were being tested now, on and off with the colored lights flashing, strobe light blinking on and off rapidly so every time someone moved, it was like in a movie reel with every other movement cut out. Freddy and Jason were placed in separate corners of the warehouse, and someone, she didn't know who, but someone had somehow bought several movie monster replicas as well. They were cheaply made, she could see it even from this distance, but in the dark with the lights flashing, they'd look plenty scary enough.

As she surveyed the warehouse, she began feeling a sense of accomplishment she was earlier contemplating on creep on her. It was just one step at a time, she told herself. She wished more could be done for the day. Like, figure out how her universe and Atmos could parallel one another when in hers Atmos wasn't real. It wasn't enough to just sit there and accept things. The questions still nagged at her, even when she reminded herself that the Storm Hawks would never know, that they'd be going back home to that same fictional-non-fictional world of theirs.

Human nature, she reflected, was what kept their species going, but it was also that same curiosity in human nature that often got humans in trouble. _Ugh, this paradox thing is gonna get me into loads of trouble one day, I just know it! _

Within the hour after everything began to wind down and people began to talk more and more while working less and less, everyone finally gathered together, drew out a game plan for the next evening and broke off. "Be here at five tomorrow night so we can squeeze in another hour of work, finish off the decorations and get the food and drinks ready."

The game plan set, everyone left.

It didn't mean Lupin's contemplations simply vanished with the dismissal. They continued to nag at her throughout the day, even as she later left for work that night, throughout her whole shift, and during her final hours winding down, trying to sleep. She knew that there was something she was missing, something she wasn't seeing, but it kept eluding her. It was four in the morning when she finally went to sleep for the night, her mind still trying to get past that irritating problem she'd remained fixated on the whole day.

In her final moments of laying conscious, she fuzzily realized that it was Saturday.

_They go home today, don't they?_ She closed her eyes. _Kinda wish I could go, too…if only for a little while…_

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Once again, Lupin was the first one up in the morning, even if she didn't like it. She knew her health probably wasn't at its best, despite outwards appearances, but until she collapsed from pure exhaustion, she probably wouldn't do much to improve it. The last of her room had finally been packed. The only things that were really waiting to be moved was her bedside table, television, and movie case. Those things she'd need the Yukon for, but hell, she'd have tomorrow and next week to work on that. For now, she was focused on getting her boxes of books, movies, and bare minimum clothing out, not to mention her snake's cage.

She packed up her Camaro while the others slept in. She somehow managed to get them all squashed in, ready to go for later that day. She was somewhat proud of her organizational skills. It was like puzzles; fit the pieces in the right spot and you'll win every time. The others were waking up when she fitted the last box in the back seat, and after a moment's consideration as she turned on the television and put on a movie for background noise, decided that for this morning, pancakes were in order.

One messy, sticky breakfast later, showers were rotated around. The afternoon drew closer as everyone slowly began to gather their things up and pack up their Skimmers. Lupin knew it was risky business, but they'd have no choice but to make a break for the _Condor_. It was at times like these that she wished she had a police scanner in her vehicle. It would make looking out for the po-po that much easier, but alas; she wasn't one of those awesome people like in movies and therefore, couldn't do much about those kinds of situations.

The only thing she could do was hope like hell that they didn't get caught in some traffic camera's lenses. One could only hope and that was about it.

"You know you can get ready at the _Condor_ if you wanted to, Lupin."

The comment had come right out of the blue, surprising Lupin. She turned to Piper as the young woman began to ruffle her hair in a towel to dry it further. She smiled at Lupin, her honey-tinged eyes glinting invitingly, warmly. Lupin blinked owlishly at the mention of the offer and replied with a rather unintelligent, "Huh?"

"Your party is a costume party, right? Well, if you're planning on seeing us off, why don't we save time and get ready at the _Condor_? We're heading there soon anyways."

Lupin furrowed her brows. "Explain?"

Piper neatly began to fold up the towel as she gave that same patient smile to Lupin.

"Well, you said earlier this morning at breakfast that we'd have no choice but to leave for the _Condor_ soon, to get our Skimmers there. That's true. You also mentioned that after you saw us off, you'd be heading straight for your new apartment, because you've been taking boxes here and there over during the week, right?"

"Yeah…I guess I see what you're saying…" Lupin frowned again. "But, then how would we all get to the party if I took my Camaro up there? Wouldn't it be easier if we just took the—oh. _Ooohhhh_…" Understanding lit up Lupin's face before she shook her head vehemently. "No freakin' way. You said yourself that the crystals in your bikes were already drained of power and—,"

"They'll last until Atmos, trust me." Piper waved at Lupin. "Besides, if we play it right, we'll be fine, so long as we ride safe, right?"

"But…what about the proper riding gear? It's enough of a risk that y'all are riding in the middle of the _day_."

Piper nodded, noting the flaw Lupin pointed out. "We'll just have to be extra careful when we leave. Or we could just fly." She laughed at Lupin's shocked expression before waving her hand at her. "Kidding!"

Lupin sighed. "Okay, fine. We'll drive up the _Condor_ in an hour. I packed my costume away in my car by accident anyways; I wasn't thinking when I did, so we're good on that account. And like you said, you'll just have to be careful when we go back down into town. Maybe y'all could even scrounge up makeshift helmets," Lupin added as an afterthought, eyeing Piper expectantly. The young woman, thankfully, caught Lupin's drift and nodded with another laugh.

"I think we can arrange that. Now come on, let's do one last sweep, make sure we didn't leave anything important behind."

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

To say that the drive back up the mountains was interesting was an understatement. They nearly ran into the police twice, and if Lupin hadn't been keeping a sharp eye and solid communication with Aerrow, they probably would've been caught. One advantage to learning how to race from her friend, was the ability to recognize low-key undercover cop cars, and their usual level of activities. Another was keeping her eyes sweeping the road, even if it looked like she was being lax behind the wheel. Her nerves were on end enough as it was, and Lupin had had a bad feeling that they would be running into the cops, and as soon as they hit the streets, lo and behold, they just nearly did that.

Thankfully, they weren't followed. Thankfully, they hadn't been pulled over or caught. The hard part had been accomplished, Lupin kept telling herself. She couldn't believe it, and yet they were back at the _Condor_, untouched. It seemed like a miracle, and Lupin was definitely not one to spit on their fortune. She counted their lucky stars that so far things were going according to plan.

_So far,_ she kept telling herself. _So far, no screw ups._

True to Piper's word, Lupin was given leeway to get ready on _Condor_, and after fishing everything out of her Camaro, found everything tied up tight in the backseat, set plush right against Zombi's cage. She double checked on everything, made sure everything was still there and after that, made her way back deeper into the _Condor_.

She still felt a giddiness welling up inside her as she crossed the metal walkways through the _Condor_, silently drinking it in and marveling that she was on it, actually on it. _What's next, I'm going to run into Cap'n Mal and the rest of 'em from _Firefly_ and have wild space cowboys adventures too? _

The wild idea made her grin like mad as she began to slip into her costume. It was something she'd been working on for the past several weeks. With some help from her grandmother's awesome sewing machine, however, things had gone pretty breezy. The only difficult part was obtaining everything.

Her ensemble could be described as one word: dark. Everything was black. Her skin-tight pants with parts of a skirt sewn on the front and back; her form fitting corset; the wolf tail from an expo; the hair dye; the gloves, the durable, tough combat boots. The only source of color that would be exposed would be her eyes, and she'd be wearing color contacts to make them stand out even more: a clear, pristine golden hue.

She grinned all the while as she began slipping each piece of the costume on, each part of it having been taken apart and put back together with new pieces attached. She couldn't have done it by herself, of course; she didn't have the greatest hand with sewing. She had her grandmother's help to thank as well. If Lupin had tried putting it all together herself by her lonesome, she was sure that more than half of everything would've fallen off of her body by now. She waggled her hips when she turned to view herself in the mirror and the tail she'd had attached at the back swished along with her. Lupin laughed as she finished trying the shirt on before slipping it off and started doing the dye for her hair.

All in all, it took a while for everything to come together. Lupin was sure she'd never wear this ensemble again, except for maybe next year if she decided to recycle a few things, but for tonight, it had to look good. And even though she knew her costume, while it had been lovingly and painstakingly made by both her hands and her grandmother's, she knew that some of the other costumes she's been hearing about, they'd blow her away clear out of the ballpark. She couldn't wait.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

**Translation:**

_**Go-se:**_** Crap**

**Lupin is a **_**Firefly**_**-watching, gory movie-loving weirdo. That is all. From time to time, she'll spout off occasional curses of Chinese. **_**Firefly**_** made her do it. You can blame it all on that awesome show. I'll post up translations if the occasional curse comes flying out here and there. :3**


	12. This is Halloween

**Chapter Eleven:  
This is Halloween**

**Reviewers:**

**Saerphe **

**Wicca in Training**

**Magus732**

**Nameless Daydreamer**

**BlueSapphireGirl**

**Clouds on Monday**

**Apollo Pompano **

_**Disclaimer: **_**All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them. **

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

_'Tis now the very witching time of night,  
__When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out  
__Contagion to this world.  
_**- William Shakespeare**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

There were many instances that Lupin could say she's surprised people. When she was younger, arriving at school with a skirt on for the first time in many, many years had severely shocked her friends. They knew her to be a bit of a tomboy at the time. It was an experiment to see how well Lupin could manage in it, a self-inflicted challenge. Another instance was wearing a faux cat tail to school. It started a bit of a trend with her friends. When Lupin began learning poi, she had been pretty bad at first. She couldn't get the coordination down, and often tangled the ropes around her arms or legs or smacked them into her face plenty of times. When she gained enough initiative in her junior year to buy her own and practice whenever she could, she once again managed to garner surprise from her friends when she and her friend Alan performed a duel poi presentation for their school's talent show. They won first place. Later that summer, Lupin moved onto fire poi. She was still prone to catching fire when she made a mistake and forgot to put fire retardant on her clothes. It was especially bad at a summer party where her pants caught fire and she had to dive into her friend's pool to put out the fire. She still had the pants from that night.

To say that she surprised the Storm Hawks, like she had with her friends for all the funny little antics she's performed in the past, with her darkly garbed costume, it would've been the understatement of that week. They openly gaped, eyes wide, mouths hinged open, brows shooting up to hide beneath long bangs. She grinned at their expressions, her fake fangs poking from the corners of her lips.

"So? What do you think?" She finally asked, waving a gloved hand.

"Um…"

"Well…"

"It's…it's different."

Lupin waited, expectant. She knew that they were probably thinking of a certain young and dark ruler of an evil empire. She knew it crossed their minds, she could see it in their eyes, but she hoped that they also knew that she was not like that girl, nothing like her at all. Finally, Aerrow managed to clear his throat and he gave her a placating smile. "It looks great. A little…different, but great. You must've worked hard on it."

She nodded, feeling somewhat relieved. She didn't know where the conversation would've gone if anything else had been said—such as, in regards to Cyclonia's ruler and her similar state of dress. Lupin swished the tail by moving her hips a little. "Yeah…I couldn't have done it without my grandma, though. She's the one who did most of the sewing for me."

Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment. After all this was done and over with, Lupin made a silent vow to herself, a reminder to ask her grandmother to help her learn how to sew by herself. She couldn't have her doing it all the time.

"You look great. And I'm guessing that's dye, right? For your hair, I mean."

Self-consciously, Lupin touched her hair and nodded. "It…uh, it doesn't look too bad, right? It's my first time doing all this. By myself, I mean."

In fact, the more she thought of it, she felt more self-conscious about it. It really was the first time she'd dyed her hair or had to have her costume hand-made. Throughout the excitement of getting everything done and put on, she hadn't realized that there might be something wrong with her costume, her dye job, or maybe her contacts looked too stupid. She suddenly wished for her combat boots, jeans and simple tank top to make herself vanish into a crowd again.

But, the placating and genuine smiles from the others made her feel less like curling away into a corner. It brought some of the nervous tension in her shoulders and back down a few notches.

"Nah, it looks great. It was just…a surprise. It…reminded us of someone we don't really care for, but...uh…" Aerrow faltered for a moment, and for once, Lupin took note on how he sometimes did that. He would start out great, bold and robust, and sometimes finish just as strong. Other times, like now, he would falter and his hesitation would show. Thinking back on it, Lupin noted the other moments when this had happened around her. Thankfully, Piper saved him from embarrassment and took over.

"But we know you're nothing like her. And it's only a costume. Right, guys?" She glanced at the others, and Lupin didn't miss the look on her face that basically said, "_Play nice._"

"Look, if it bothers you that much, I can change the _gorram_ costume, you know—,"

"Naw, it's cool, Lupin. Don't sweat it. You just look different. We know it's you." Finn wagged a hand at her.

"Yeah, and now we can go change back into our uniforms. They may not be cool costumes like yours, but nobody else will know." Junko grinned as he and Finn started towards the door leading out of the bridge. They gave cheery mock salutes and disappeared behind the sliding door. Piper and Aerrow exchanged looks.

"Well, I guess since everything's almost done, we can get going soon. Stork, how're things looking?" Aerrow turned to their carrier pilot and the Merb gave a slight grimace.

"The engine crystals haven't been used since we started them up a few days ago, so they've been fine for the time being. They're still sapping energy, though, so I can only guess how much power will be left in them by the time we get back to Atmos. I'd wager about twenty-five percent, give or take. We'd better hope we come out on the other side near a docking station or a friendly terra, or else things might get a little rough."

Aerrow and Piper exchanged another set of duel looks, sharing in the grimace Stork had presented moments before. "We'd better hope, then," Aerrow nodded in agreement. "I don't think our Skimmers will have enough power to make it out on a scouting mission, either, if that happened."

"All my crystals are dead, too, so I wouldn't be able to help even if I could," Piper added, looking disheartened. Lupin frowned, feeling helpless.

"Isn't there another source of power in your world other than crystals?" She ventured, looking a little nervous to breach the subject of Atmos. The truth was, if this wasn't the Storm Hawks, or anyone from Atmos, Lupin would've probably been more open and argumentative towards the subject. But now she had to be withdrawn and closed off, feigning idiocy and ignorance. It wasn't all that hard, actually.

Piper regarded the older woman for a moment before shaking her head. "I'm afraid not. Crystals are the major leading power source, and while there are others, like wind power, it isn't enough at times. It's like when you told us about how oil is your leading power source here, or at least, the biggest venue for it, it's like that for us in Atmos."

Lupin winced. _I thought so. God, this sucks for them. Why do you have to infinitely suck, my world's, The Universe? _

"I guess…the only thing I can say is good luck on that one, then." It really was the only thing she could think of and she felt that tug on her heart for the Storm Hawks. She really hoped they could get back somewhere familiar safe and sound. Otherwise…things might get even stickier if they ended up in the Wastelands or worse. She didn't want to think about that if it happened, so she did the logical thing that came to mind and changed the subject. "So, uh, I guess we should get going pretty soon. Why don't y'all change over? I'll wait in the bay for y'all."

With a quick agreement underway, Lupin shuffled out of there quickly enough and found herself by her car all of a sudden, having passed through the _Condor_'s hallway in a blur. To pass the time, she checked on Zombi and made sure he was fine. The snake made no visible signs of outrage of being moved, nor did he seem to care about Lupin's fussing. He simply sat there, content as can be under his little wooden hut. When she heard the pounding of boots and hollers from Finn and Junko alike, Lupin finally pulled herself out of her vehicle and waited.

They were back in their uniforms now, a familiar sight to behold, although she would admit, seeing them in jeans and t-shirts had been a surprisingly pleasing sight. Not to mention, a very different view to see. She sometimes had to take a ruttin' double-take at times, and now…now she was doing the same again, even if it was only a few days later. She grinned at the Storm Hawks as they slowly filed into the bay, although it faltered when she saw that Stork wasn't among them.

When she asked, Piper answered that he'd be staying with the ship so that they could get off the ground as early as possible when the time came to leave. "He'll be able to keep an eye on the energy levels of the crystals as well."

"Well, that's just great, I was here hoping he'd come down and have a nice time. This puts a ruttin' damper on everything." Lupin half-pouted, although she saw the sense and logic in the answer Piper gave her. She made a mental reminder to give Stork a hug, mostly to freak him out and also because, well, he was pretty cool up close and personal when it came down to it. She wished she'd spent a little more time with the Merb and felt a little guilty she hadn't. _At least I'm no longer labeled as a Cyclonian spy in his book anymore._

The skies outside were darkening and already the bay was growing fuzzy with the gray haziness that would soon turn dark and black. Lupin leaned inside her car's open window, plucked her phone from the seat and put it in her pocket.

"So, since this is everyone, y'all ready for a good party before your takeoff?"

Her grin was matched with the others smiling back, their eyes alit with an expectant and ready gleam. Then she hesitated when they all nodded in agreement and started heading towards the bikes. A_w, crap. I forgot about that._

Now, to start, Lupin wasn't nervous on or near or around bikes, far from it. Her family, on occasion for the holidays and school breaks, would go out to the Mojave Desert and spend anywhere between a weekend and a whole week out there. She, her brother, and her stepdad all rode dirt bikes, so all in all, Lupin was quite comfortable riding a bike, and even planned later on, when she had the money, to get one of her own.

The only issue she had was when she didn't have the proper gear. It might be a probable result from having the habit beat into her, or the fact that Lupin had no interests in accumulating broken or lost limbs, brain damage or permanent disfigurement if something went wrong. But when someone wanted to ride around on a bike like a _gorram_ idiot without proper gear, it bothered her, to an extent. Jeans and a t-shirt with a helmet didn't suffice as proper gear in her book. She eyed the monstrous bikes that were, by and large, demented land sharks on steroids as far as she was concerned, not that far off in design as the bikes from _Final Fantasy_ were.

So it was natural that Lupin hesitated when the others looked to her expectantly, waiting for her. She'd already spoken with Piper on it. She was going to leave her car here and ride with them to the party and when they came back, she'd take her car back down to her new apartment. It would save her on gas, for one, and for another, it'd be simply easier to do in the long run.

"Hey, you okay?" It was a simple question from Aerrow and one that snapped Lupin out of her leering reverie. She nodded a little before glancing at Piper. She shrugged helplessly, as if reading her mind.

"I couldn't find anything, not unless you feel like wearing a pot on your head as a makeshift helmet," she answered. Lupin grimaced, ignoring the questioning looks she and Piper received from Junko.

"Damn." Lupin muttered under her breath. Finn groaned and smacked his hands on the sides of his bike.

"Are we ready to go or not? Cuz, I'm ready for some action already!"

"Hey, we still got some time, Finn. We'll get there," Junko glanced at the sharpshooter, who only waved a dismissive hand. Lupin sighed and stepped away from her vehicle and in a mimicking gesture of Finn, waved her hand in a dismissive, flapping gesture.

"All right, all right, let's get going then. Who am I riding with?"

Before the others could answer or offer, Aerrow said, "You're with me." Then he hesitated before adding, "You know the way to the warehouse better than us, and how to get there fast."

Lupin eyed him for a moment, feeling a bit dumbfounded before she shrugged at last. It sometimes took a minute to remind herself that these were younger kids than her, by a few years, and they were sometimes about as mature as her. Other times, not so much, and unfortunately she thought of Finn most of those instances, but she gave him some credit. He had his moments. She finally snapped herself out of her staring, and stepped forward.

"Shiny, let's get going," she repeated, hands on her hips and while she was still feeling uncomfortable about riding around on the streets without a helmet, hopefully the oncoming night would hide them. She also felt nervous about the energy supply and how low it was for the Skimmers. Not for the first and certainly not for the last time, Lupin thought that they maybe should've used the Yukon. She pulled at a ponytail elastic band from her pocket and began lacing her hair up for the upcoming ride.

The upstart of roaring engines, however, sort of made her feel nostalgic and giddy, despite her worries and insecurities about this rickety-looking plan. The thought of the Yukon and its use once again came to her, but she pushed it aside as she gathered up her courage and swung herself onto Aerrow's Skimmer, the whole bike thrumming through her body. Radarr gave a squawk of approval and a toothy smile. She returned it and he gave her a thumbs up before settling into his side car and looking at the others. Junko gave Radarr a wide smile, Lupin saw before she turned to Piper, who gave an encouraging smile.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine! Aerrow's a great rider!"

_It's not the rider or the ride I'm worried about,_ Lupin wanted to say, but kept her mouth shut. She simply nodded.

"Ready to go?" Aerrow called over his shoulder. Lupin swallowed before she returned an affirmative. "Hold on, then!"

Before she could answer, the bike thrust forward beneath her and she nearly toppled over if she hadn't yanked her arms forward to grapple Aerrow's waist. He laughed, although Lupin didn't find it as funny. "I told you to hold on!"

"Just shut up and drive!"

His only response, lapsed in with Radarr's, was to laugh at her again. Lupin ignored the heat of embarrassment coloring her face and neck, and instead focused on keeping herself stuck on the bike and not ending up on the rushing road flying by them.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The ride was, surprisingly, rather smooth. Or at least, it had been smoother than Lupin expected. She was in one piece, and that was all she had asked for, and thus, she received it in kind. Not that she was religious in any way, but that was another story for another time. The parking lot was still relatively empty, with only a few cars, but Lupin figured that everyone was probably carpooling for the party.

She spotted Chris in his five-foot-eight glory hanging out by the door with one of his buddies, ironically named Chris as well, laughing and yakking it up. As Lupin and the Storm Hawks approached, he and the other Chris both nodded in their direction and waved. A quick hello and goodbye later, they entered the warehouse and saw that most of everything was almost ready, though there were a few more jobs to finish. After establishing what needed to be done, she and the Storm Hawks broke off into groups and went to different stations around the warehouse to get to work.

Contrary to belief, the work was surprisingly quick. The most that needed to be done was set up the DJ table, spread out the confections and other snacks and drinks as well as test the lights and set up the fog machine. When everything was done, the music began to play, vibrating through the air. People started relaxing, and Lupin broke off from group to group, catching up and complimenting her friends on their costumes. She was especially impressed with one person's costume as a favored anime character.

She noticed that the Storm Hawks were mingling as well, and from time to time, saw they too seemed to be a relaxed state of manner, not tense and awkward at all. Not like a few days ago. The lights dimmed and the racing, blinking colored lights began to blink and weave across the dance floor, making the place feel more like a club than a warehouse. She swayed to the beat of the music, a techno song she recognized as a Daft Punk piece, before being joined with her friends.

Her faux-fanged grin only grew bigger when the fog machine began to billow out its namesake of fog, and _This Is Halloween_, the Marilyn Manson remix, began to boom across the warehouse. Excusing herself from the conversation between Dani and Kit, Lupin made for the stage where Alan, in his UFO baggy pants, giant DJ-headphones glory was bouncing on the stage behind his music station. He waved at her when she climbed up onto the stage and shouted above the music, "Hey, it's the B.A.! What's up, B.A.? Havin' a good time?"

"Yeah, you know it, boy! Hey, listen, you got your poi on you? I accidentally packed all mine away!" She could barely hear him above the music, especially this close to the stage.

"Naw, man, it's all in my car. Here, go get 'em, B.A., I know what you're thinkin'! Go, Bad Ass!" He laughed boisterously as he shoved his car keys into Lupin's hands. Lupin chuckled at the appointed nickname Alan had given her in freshman year; he had always referred to her as "Bad Ass" or "B.A." for short, because she had, essentially, worn an anime cat tail to school, and downright didn't care at the pointed stares or jeering comments she got. She wore that tail with pride, dammit, and no one with their mocking questions or leering gazes got her down. For some reason, that stunt alone had earned respect in Alan's book and from then on, the two had been friends. Alan had been the one to patiently teach Lupin poi, often allowing her to borrow his set when she didn't have one.

Taking his keys and giving him a big hug, Lupin shouted a grateful thank you in his ear before jumping off the stage and heading outside to Alan's beat up Honda Civic. Digging into his car to find his poi turned out to be a challenge, he had plenty of crumpled paperwork littering the seats and floorboards, but find it she did. She whirled them around in the parking lot to get a feel for the weight, since Alan's were a little heavier than her own, but not terribly so. With a grin, she rushed back inside the darkened warehouse, passing one of the Alien props and giving it a quick pat on it plastic snout, moved inside. Alan spotted her moving towards the stage and shouted, "Hey, B.A.! Get some sticks on those things!"

He motioned towards a row of newly opened glow sticks and necklaces on the stage, ranging in size from tiny to very large. Dani and Tyler were setting them up and already people were rushing to grab some of their own. Lupin stepped forward and when Dani saw the poi, she made a noise and groaned, "Awww, I should've brought mine!"

"I'm sure Alan will let you use them in a little. I just wanna get some practice in, I haven't done this in a while!"

"Don't hit your face," Dani warned with a sly smile and a chuckle. Lupin laughed alongside her, and while she set one up with a blue glow stick, Dani stuck a red one on the other. Twirling them around a few times for practice, the weight leveled out, Lupin nodded to Dani and gave her friend a hug.

"Thanks, hun. Hey, if you can find some, maybe you can put some glow sticks on some twine or something and join me."

"Oh, yeah, cool." Dani laughed with a nod. "I think I got some in my car, I'll go and grab some! Thanks!"

With that, the two parted ways and Lupin moved to a relatively clear section on the dance floor and began spinning the poi in small, short circles. Simple tricks were employed, mostly because she didn't want to hit anyone and also, she didn't feel like getting smacked in the face. It was like a running gag that always seemed to happen to her if she wasn't being serious.

Lupin grinned at the faces that blurred in her vision as she spun the glow sticks on the end of the poi, weaving her arms back and forth, allowing more slack in the lines. Some cheered, other simply danced around her like she wasn't there. She noticed the Storm Hawks watching in complete interest for a time, especially Piper. The young woman watched in complete rapture, beaming at the light show Lupin was putting on. If Lupin was more confident in her skills and had the proper equipment, she probably would've showed the Storm Hawks the fire poi she had been working on for the past six months. Unfortunately, because of her prone tendencies to catch fire if she wasn't careful and her rather amateur level compared to several friends, including Alan, Lupin didn't want to risk it. She really didn't want to end up on fire again. She wouldn't have a pool to jump into.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Piper dawdled around the tables filled with all kinds of confectionaries and other snacks, both homemade and from the store. She kept an eye on everyone, and knew Aerrow was doing the same. Piper was more worried about Finn making a fool of himself…or giving away their game to the wrong person. They were so close now, they didn't need any complications right now, not this close to leaving. Plus, she didn't want to have leave with a sour taste in her mouth or a rushed goodbye to Lupin. _Or no goodbye at all,_ she thought with a grimace.

No, she knew that keeping a low-key profile would be the best option. Junko was thankfully being very tactful indeed, allowing people to compliment on his "great costume" instead of correcting them. He knew to be hush-hush on being a species that was most definitely not human. Junko seemed plenty at home with the party, at least, enjoying some homemade treats down a ways from where Piper was lounging. He caught her eye, paused in delivering another bite to the sweet in his hand and gave her a rather cheery wave and beaming grin.

"You should try this stuff, Piper! Lupin's friend Dani made it, it's really good! Fudge brownies with chocolate chips in them!"

Piper smiled and waved a hand at him, gracefully declining the offer. Junko shrugged before he glanced over his shoulder and saw Finn bouncing in the crowd, whooping loudly in tune with the music. It was no surprise, it was a hard core rock song playing, complete with guitars and drums blasting in the background as the singer crooned in a low, but sultry and slightly gravelly voice.

She turned to the dance floor, feeling a little awkward. She was never much of a dancer, not even as a little girl. She'd always had that deep-rooted fascination with crystals and from the fuzzy memories she had of her, her mother often supported this rapture of attention. Her aunt, when Piper came to live with her when her mother had passed away, had helped foster this as well, and when she could afford it, bought books on crystals for Piper to study.

Things like taking the time to make friends became second in life, to her at least. There were times when her aunt finally had to kick her out of the house to go make friends during the holidays or school breaks even. While she wasn't fond of being kicked out of the house, she also had to accredit her aunt for being the main reason she'd met Aerrow and the others in the first place. Piper paused in her mental musings long enough to lift her eyes to the dance floor and stopped short when she saw Lupin there, a small section to herself, with something in her hands with ropes on the ends. She was spinning them in random arcs and intervals. The glowing sticks at the end left streaks of light in their wake, creating a rather alluring image to the eye. She smiled when Lupin caught her eye. Lupin grinned back, pulled the spinning glow sticks out in front and began creating another glowing illusion, one that looked suspiciously like a butterfly.

Piper, who was too preoccupied with the light show, the dancing, the music, everything on the dance floor and starting to feel more at ease around other people, didn't notice the subtle quivering of the ceiling. She didn't notice the plaster dust crumbling down on the dance floor or the faint rumbling in the floor beneath her feet. It wasn't until a thicker layer of dust began to drift from the ceiling and the walls that people stopped dancing, stopped to stare.

"Hey, someone shut off that music! Shut it the fuck off!" Someone shouted at the stage. Alan fumbled with the controls for a split second before the speakers went dead completely. Everything was still, a tense hush collapsing upon the occupants. The dust suddenly gave pause in its trickling descent. People finally seemed to breath a collective sigh of relief, talking amongst one another, wondering if that had been a minor earthquake.

Piper herself was feeling relief, wondering why she was so worked up, why her heart was racing and was ready to wade through the crowd of bodies to meet with Aerrow—

—right as the whole eastern wall, and a good chunk of the ceiling came roaring down in a wave of plaster, dry wall sheeting and pure concrete. Ceiling lights came down with a thunderous crash, sparks flashing through the haze of dust. The rest of the dancing lights died, throwing the crowd into darkness. People shouted, pushing against Piper, the sudden air of fear engulfing the party. Shafts of crimson light washed in from the outside, and then she heard _him_ laughing. It sent a shiver of fear twisting up and down her spine like a cold snake, and she spotted Lupin in the midst of the crowd, standing her ground instead of running off like the rest of her friends, her peers.

Finally Piper found her voice, knowing that none of the crimson lights coming through the dust, heading towards them, none of it was good news. "Everyone get back! Get away from the wall! Get to the exits!"

No one argued that command and like a flock of sheep, they began shoving towards said exits, and it was a good thing that there weren't all that many people in the warehouse to begin with, less than forty people. Piper turned back to the hole in the wall, her heart doing erratic sprints in her chest. She reached for her energy staff, muscles twitchy and ready to bring forth the pain, but her hands only grasped at thin air. It was in that moment she realized, _I don't have it, I left it on the _Condor_! Crap!_

Her breath hitched when the dust and debris began to settle and figures began to come through the haze. The name was suddenly shouted before it even graced her lips or touched the edges of her mind.

"DARK ACE!"

The malice in the voice—of whom she recognized was Aerrow's—was what snapped Piper into action. She swooped over towards the stock still Lupin, seeing that the girl was still standing there, most likely out of shock and fear. When Piper reached her, she began tugging on Lupin's arm, trying to spur her to get moving again. What she saw in Lupin's eyes, however, was not only fear, but a chilly calculating gaze. Piper shivered again and twisted in the direction of the Dark Ace as he seemed to part the very dust before him, cleaving through it with his energy blade. His red eyes scanned the fleeing crowd and he laughed again. Lupin remained with Piper, however, not fighting for a way out like everyone else, although she did stare at her friends with worried eyes as they retreated from the warehouse's confines.

The rest of the Storm Hawks remained as well, standing their ground. Aerrow was the first to react, and it wasn't that surprising. Aerrow was the most skilled and could take the Dark Ace, despite the older man's seasoned years as a skilled opponent. It was lucky enough that Aerrow had the equal level of skill to do so as well. She certainly didn't think she could do it if she were alone. It was then that Lupin finally broke away from Piper's grip. Piper allowed her to go, assuming that Lupin was going to flee to safety like her friends.

What she didn't see or account for, was Lupin doing quite the opposite. Towards the wall of the warehouse she bolted for, yes, but towards the destroyed portion of the warehouse, not towards the exit. Piper didn't notice, only focusing on giving Aerrow and Dark Ace their room. While Piper forgot her staff, Aerrow hadn't forgotten his lightning blades. He quickly drew them and the charismatic and familiar blue glow somehow put Piper at ease, as if everything was going to be all right. Piper eyed approaching figures that were skulking from the hole behind the Dark Ace, thugs of Cyclonia, brandishing their energy staffs tipped with crimson crystals.

"Aerrow, how nice to see you," the Dark Ace finally said, his voice crooning and inviting, almost as if greeting an old friend. His tone made Piper sick as she scanned the now empty warehouse. Finn looked jittery, eyes wide and hands twitching, as if waiting for a crossbow to fall into his hands. Junko had activated his knuckle busters, his thick hands engulfed in an emerald glow. The Wallop looked downright ready to throw a serious beat down on the approaching Cyclonians. Radarr was hopping madly behind Aerrow, chattering angrily, face drawn in a snarl.

"Dark Ace, how did you get here? Shouldn't you be back in Cyclonia, licking the scraps your master gives you?" Aerrow narrowed his eyes, pointing one of his blades at the Dark Ace, and the older man chuckled, his lips twisting into a sneering grin.

"Why, Aerrow, how cruel. Here you are, having a party, and you have the gall not to invite me? I think I should remedy that injustice." The Dark Ace swept his blade across the warehouse with a sharp snap and shouted, "_Cyclonians,_ _attack_!"

The Cyclonians leapt, as did the Storm Hawks. Piper leapt forward towards a staff-wielding Cyclonian brute, who attempted a rather clumsy slash. She lashed forward like a snake and gave a few well-placed punches and nerve attacks before the energy staff clattered to the ground with its master stumbling away in a daze. Piper kicked up the staff to her hands and twirled it expertly between long, fine fingers before wielding its crystal tip in the thug's face.

The Cyclonian gave pause and held up his hands in surrender before Piper smacked him in the skull. The man crumpled to the ground without a fuss and she turned to face another opponent. Just as she did, however, she noticed a black blur moving across the warehouse past the battles that were ongoing. Right before she was engaged, Piper realized in horror who it was, moving closer towards a group of Cyclonians ready to slither their way inside.

It was Lupin.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**


	13. Bad Idea

**Chapter Twelve:  
****Bad Idea**

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_**Disclaimer: **_**All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them. **

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

_Oh, this is a bad fucking idea!_**  
- John McClane, "**_**Live Free or Die Hard**_**"**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

She noticed him in her last, panicky seconds before deciding to go after him instead of fleeing for safety like the others. As soon as the wall had crumbled, the dust had settled and the Dark Ace swept into the warehouse, she knew shit had officially hit the fan. Questions arose quickly, but were quelled in the sea of emotions roiling inside her as she finally made it to the warehouse wall and ran at a low crouch, hiding behind an overturned table to catch glimpses of the scene before her. Piper had let her go relatively easily and with good reason. She'd have more on her plate to worry about in a few moments. Lupin snapped her head towards the Dark Ace when he spoke and felt a chill run across her bare skin and swallowed dryly.

Lupin turned her eyes towards the quivering little ball not even ten feet away from the torn wall, a pale face streaked in dust and tears. Lupin felt her fear freeze her up again and she shot a quick glance up where the Dark Ace stood atop the rubble. She darted out from her hiding spot, practically hugging the wall and thanking that her costume was dark enough to hide her in this setting.

"_Cyclonians, attack!_"

That made her jolt as if electrocuted and she hid behind a broken slab of dry wall, curling up as much as possible. The shouts of the attacking Cyclonian henchmen sent another wave of chills through her, but when she peeped over at the curled up bundle not that far from her, her resolve hardened. Yes, she was scared out of her wits, but she wasn't just scared for herself, she was scared for her friend Chase. Young, wiry and adorable to boot, Chase was much taller than Lupin, but also younger and still in high school, one of the few contacts she had that was still there.

Memories of her going to parties with her friends, playing video games with Chase, seeing him at school, eating lunch with him, shopping at the mall with him—they all rushed by. She couldn't leave him stranded there, not to be discovered by the Cyclonians, she couldn't, not for any of her friends. Gathering her nerve, despite the fear that wanted to paralyze her, the instincts that told her to run the other way and don't look back, Lupin spurred forward, trying not to trip on the dragging portion of the skirt that was sewn to her pants.

The battle raged around her, Cyclonians diving headlong into the fray against four kids—_but they're not kids, they're not, they're fighters, they're warriors, they're fuckin' _Sky Knights_, for fuck's sakes!_—as she dove towards her friend. Chase, upon seeing her rush forward, scrabbled onto his hands and knees and met her half way. When she was near, he launched himself at her, clinging to her, nearly making her topple over from his longer body.

Her shoulder was immediately wet with his terrified tears, and she realized, _God, _I_ should be breaking down too, don't start, don't cry, please, I just need to get him out of here, it's gonna be okay, Chase, I promise—_

"Sh-Sha-Shadow, S-Shad-dow!"

The affectionate and longtime nickname—almost as long as her alias Lupin—was blubbered in her ear as Chase hugged her, and she was in Big Sister mode all of a sudden. Chase was still younger than her, just around the Storm Hawks' ages, but there was a difference: Chase hadn't been thrown into a war, he was just a high school kid. He wasn't a fighter, far from it. _Then what does that make me, then? I'm just a college student! I'm an artist! _

The hypocritical words bit back with a vengeance as she thought of her younger days when she got into scraps, when she got into rough fights and had earned the nickname of "The Weasel" in elementary school for her lightning quick strikes and tenacious passion to win at all costs. But now she had to be that weasel again, that proud mama wolf and protect her friends, who were just as close to her as he family was. She pulled away from Chase and gathered his face in her hands, making him look at her through his teary eyes and he hiccupped, looking ready to bury his face back in her shoulder, like it was suddenly a safe haven to hide in.

"Chase, I need you to listen to me, okay? Can you do that? Can you follow my lead?"

Chase's eyes, a warm and kind brown and usually filled with playfulness, were now streaked with terror as they darted around behind Lupin. He shook and sobbed, but he nodded, arms quivering as he reached up and gripped his hands on Lupin's upper arms tightly. "Ye-yeah, yeah, I-I ca-c-can," he hiccupped again.

Lupin breathed in deeply, trying to block out all the fighting, trying to shield him from view as best she could, because dammit, if she had to, she'd take a blow for him, if only to give him a running head start. "Okay, Chase. We're gonna get out of here, all right? We're gonna leave here, and we're gonna be safe. We can't go through there, understand?"

She nodded towards the hole in the wall, but he didn't look. He only nodded, as if not trusting himself to speak. "Good. We're gonna go back the way I came, okay? Hide when I say to, run when I tell you to, but _don't look back. Dong le ma?_"

"W-What?"

"Understand," Lupin harshly corrected herself. He nodded vigorously and she gathered his hand—pale and broader than hers, but just as fine featured and lengthy as a female's hand—into her own. "Let's get out of her, and we'll get some hot chocolate, and watch a movie or go home, or sleep or whatever."

"An-and t-t-th-the-them?"

She didn't need to turn around to see who he meant by them. "Aerrow and the others will be fine, I promise."

"But who _ar-are_ they?" The question burned in his watery eyes and the conviction in which he voiced it, it was like he knew already, but couldn't _remember_. Lupin hoped he wouldn't. It would make things much more complicated than they should be.

Lupin gave him a placating smile, hoping to disarm him, before she twisted to view behind her, bunching her muscles up, getting ready to sprint. "They're my friends, just like you are, Chase. They can take care of themselves, and right now, we need to get out of their way, okay? They're helping us escape, let's not waste their efforts."

He gulped another breath down, trying to calm himself and Lupin had to give him big props. She really, really did, and promised to smother him with presents as soon as they all got out of this predicament. _Just keep yourself calm, don't break down again or shut down completely. Let's get out of here._

The coast was clear now, perhaps the only time they'd have a good chance at getting out. She could see one of the exits, not that far from them, unguarded.

Well, of course it's unguarded, idiot, no one's expecting someone to freeze up and stay in a corner huddled up! Lupin harshly berated herself. She looked back at her friend, feeling him cling to her hand like it was a lifeline and for all she knew, it practically was. She swallowed, her fear wanting to torch away any courage she had, but she kept the façade, kept it in place so her friend wouldn't crumble, like she knew he wanted to, like she wanted to.

"Okay, get ready to run in three, two, o—,"

"Wait, wait, wait, w-wait…"

His hand shook in hers. Lupin turned back and looked him straight in the eye. "Chase, you'll make it out of here, I promise. Don't lose your nerve, _dong le ma_? Be brave, little one," she said, and frankly, she had no clue where the words had come from, they simply poured out. He stared at her, still watery eyed and tear-stained but nodded, swallowing a few times.

"Three…two…one!"

They bolted, ducking behind another piece of dry wall, ducking beneath the sudden blasts of staffs going off in all directions, to which Lupin had to ask herself, _I thought the crystals were dead, why're they working? And how did that bastard even get here?_

Questions arose, but none at this time, or ever, would be answered. The main goal would be to get the warehouse door, and then quiz time could begin. They were fifteen feet away, closing fast. She saw Junko out the corner of her eye, turned to see him staring at her, his knuckle busters activated. Again, she couldn't help but wonder, _How are the crystals _working_? Why aren't they dead by now? _

The door was mere feet away now, and then they'd be safe; she could even hear sirens off in the distance—

—And then all hell broke loose when Chase was yanked away from her with a blood-curdling scream of petrifying fear.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

His laugh made her heart freeze in her chest, time seemed to slow to a crawl as she turned around, eyes locked on Chase as he was pulled forcefully away from her. The younger boy reached for her, she saw the terror in his eyes—right before she saw the Dark Ace behind Chase, he was the one yanking Chase away from her. His eyes danced with cruelty in mind and he laughed as he turned away, paying her no heed as soon as he captured his prize. Then time sped up as he brought Chase into the clear, his crimson-engulfed blade up to press close to the younger boy's throat.

"Oh, look at what I have here, a little mouse who didn't know when to scurry away like the rest of the colony! Perhaps he'll make a fine present to Master Cyclonis when we leave for Atmos!"

The icy feeling in her veins and chest grew heavier as Lupin's eyes suddenly darted away from Chase and the Dark Ace, to the gathered Storm Hawks surrounded by the Cyclonian Talons. Piper, she noticed, had acquired one of the Talon's staffs and had it held out in a defensive posture. They regrouped together, Aerrow at the head with Radarr by his side and the two held remarkably similar snarls as they glowered heatedly at the Dark Ace.

The Talons drew closer, pressing the Storm Hawks together. So far, none had noticed her amazingly enough—or maybe they didn't register her as a threat. Lupin's hands balled into fists at her side, and she took a step forward, but hesitated. The dread of Chase being hurt paralyzed her to the spot, and she was almost anxious to see if any heroics would be in the very near future from the Storm Hawks. Vaguely, she noticed the sounds of the sirens were even closer now, the shouts and wails of people outside from the parking lot.

"Let him go, Dark Ace! He's got nothing to do with this!" Aerrow snarled, to which the Cyclonian Talon leader only laughed.

"And get rid of a shield to keep you and your lackeys at bay? I think not. After all, he won't be the only present for Master Cyclonis." His smile was slow to spread on his face and unpleasant to behold. Chase whimpered. No one moved, except for the Dark Ace. He started to slowly back away towards the newly created giant hole in the wall.

"I'm warning you, Dark Ace, let him go—,"

"Or _what_, exactly? You'll attack? Make a move and I'll make sure _you_ be the one to run your blades through him." He shot back with a hiss and to Chase, he added, "and if _you_ move, I'll skewer you _myself_."

The threat, so clear and defined in the suddenly quiet warehouse, made Lupin snap. Her fists balled up so tightly, her nails cut deep into her palms, but at the moment, the pain didn't register. Lupin picked up a piece of broken concrete, hefting it in her hand and without thinking, threw it.

It landed on its mark straight and true: right upside the Dark Ace's skull. The man toppled over in surprise with a loud cry, his blade dropping to the ground with an almighty clatter. Chase screeched in fright before darting away, not needing to be told twice when Lupin screamed at him to run away. The Cyclonian henchmen advanced quickly, energy staffs at the ready, but the Storm Hawks leapt into action.

Junko swept his fists upside three Talons at once; Finn grabbed a discarded energy staff and began to swing wildly at another set, while Piper knocked down two in one shot. Chase quickly scurried away through the clear path they provided him, and then he was suddenly out the warehouse doors. They slammed shut with a final ring as Aerrow made a quick beeline for the Dark Ace, who quickly recovered and dove for his sword, barely avoiding a fatal strike from Aerrow's blades.

The two clashed, trading blow for blow. Lupin stood there, entranced for a few seconds, realizing what she'd just done. _Shit. Oh, motherfucking, fuckity-fuck shit, I just, oh God I didn't just did what I thought I did, did I? _

Panic arose in her chest and her legs suddenly felt wobbly. Piper's shout, calling her name, however, jolted her out of her landlocked position. Lupin snapped her head in the young woman's direction and she saw Piper beckoning her forth, urgency plainly written on her face. "Come on, Lupin, hurry up! Get out of here!"

Her legs drove forward, her heart abruptly doing sprints in her chest, the adrenaline coursing through her veins as she made for the other four. Radarr leapt onto a Talon's back and began scrabbling at the man's eyes, growls and snarls erupting from his mouth, lips curled in a sneer.

"YOU!"

Something yanked on her shirt, pulling her back, throwing her momentum off. Her legs flailed as she tried to pull away, and then she was gruffly pulled against something hard and unpleasant. An arm snaked around her throat, pulling her into a headlock, and she got the impression of a red haze in her sidelong view before a brilliant blue engulfed her vision, bright and blindly to look at directly.

She closed her eyes, trying to protect them from the searing light before it backed off and she heard a growl in front of her. She peeped them open and felt her heart leap into her throat when she saw Aerrow in front of her, his blades less than a foot away from her face.

The situation she was in finally clicked in her mind when she felt a rumble through her backside, a loud cackle in her ear.

"Your little stunt will cost you, girl. Brave, but stupid of you. I'm sure you'll make a fine Talon warrior, with the right training. What do you think of that, Aerrow? Your friends turned against you, it's happened before, so why not one more?"

"Dammit, let her go, Dark Ace! She has _nothing_ to do with this fight!"

"Oh, I'm afraid she _does_, the moment she lugged that rock at my head. Besides," he crooned, right in her ear. "She shouldn't be starting something she isn't willing to _finish_."

Revulsion swept over her and she stared pleadingly at Aerrow, bringing her hands up to try and pry the hard arm pulled around her throat loose.

Aerrow glared at the Dark Ace, but for a split moment, his gaze flickered to her and in those few seconds they locked eyes, they softened, almost as if apologizing. She tried swallowing, but it came out as a gag as the Dark Ace once more began backing out towards the hole in the side of the warehouse. Outside, the sirens of police cruisers were so close; they might as well be down on the avenue leading to the warehouse.

_No…_

"Talons! Move out, back to your Switchblades!"

"Boss?" One called out, hesitant.

"NOW! That's an _order!_"

Rushed movement signified that the order was being followed without another word.

_No, don't…_

"Just let her go, Dark Ace. Leave her out of this; she's just an innocent in this world." Junko shot at the man, and she saw him advance forward, now free to move across the warehouse floor. The Dark Ace let out another laugh behind her as they stepped over the ruined wall. She could feel the cooler October air playing at her hair, but the glowing sword in the Dark Ace's hand drew closer towards her skin, hot and bright and too much to stand in such a compromising position.

"That's the point, Wallop. She's _exactly_ what I need in this equation."

Junko stared helplessly at her, stopping his advance. _No, don't let him take me, please, just let me the _fuck go_, goddammit! _Her tongue was numb in her mouth and she felt her eyes sting and her vision got blurry. _Dammit, don't go crying now, too! _

The situation, however, was making her head whirl and swerve through an emotional crash course she frankly wasn't ready for. Her eyes darted between the faces that were gathered, watched as the Talons retreated as she was being half-dragged, half-escorted away from the warehouse, further from the Storm Hawks. And here she was: the stupid one who ended up pissing off the right hand man of Cyclonia's ruler. She sucked in a few breaths, trying to calm herself.

"How did you even _get_ here?" Piper finally asked, eyes narrowed at the Dark Ace. The older man paused in his walk, but his grip on Lupin didn't lessen. She was only a bystander now, and an unwilling one at that. It was also about time the question came to light.

"What in interesting question. We were actually following you, when you happened to cross over to this…world." He rolled his tongue over the word 'world' as if it were a foreign term, and an unpleasant one at that. "But it's amazing how dense you all were and how easily you let your guards down while visiting around this little town or even try to fix your engines."

That stirred sparks in the Storm Hawks all over again, renewed and vigorous loathing written all over their faces. The Dark Ace sneered, a pleasant gleam in his eyes, knowing he'd thoroughly smacked the wasp's nest from a rather cozy and safe distance. After all, he had all the protection he needed in the form of a friendly youth they'd been with for the past week.

"What did you do to the _Condor_?" Aerrow demanded, advancing several steps, to which the Dark Ace matched with long strides of his own backwards.

"Oh, nothing much. Just an old ploy you should've looked into from the beginning. Really, you forget I know the nooks and crannies well enough, because _I used to live on that ship._" he blasted back, the last half hissed through clenched teeth as if mentioning it left a bad taste in his mouth.

Finn snorted. "Yeah, like a hundred years ago!" He countered, smirking a little at his jab.

Red eyes snapped onto the sharpshooter, who squeaked in surprise and swallowed nervously under the heated gaze of the Talon leader. Then he turned back to meet Aerrow's fiery stare with his own. Another smile slowly crept across his lips, feral and predatory as he regarded the youths before him like helpless prey.

"The only reason I give you courtesy of this knowledge is because you're not going to make it back to Atmos. You'll be stranded here, in this little world, while Cyclonia will finally take back what is rightfully ours. It's more satisfying knowing your enemies are alive and unable to do anything to stop you, you know." Another chuckle emanated from him. "So if you try to follow us, Sky Knights, she'll die a more painful and gruesome death than by my own hand. _Remember that._"

The last sight Lupin had of the Storm Hawks were the same intense, but helpless looks on their faces before the Dark Ace picked her bodily up—which, in truth, wasn't that hard of a feat—and after a jarring sprint, she was slammed onto a bike. She proceeded to go into a coughing fit, her ragged breathes competing with that of the sirens—sirens! The police! Lupin lifted her gaze up, hoping to see those stupid blue and red lights, for once wanting to rejoice for the cops being there on time.

She was thoroughly disappointed, however, and found no hero cops like John McClane to save the day, no SWAT team, no police barricade to stop the Talons (not that a barrier could, but the gesture was hopeful to think about). Her gaze was met with the squadron of Talons, a circle of them on their Switchblades, all smirking and looking about as hammy as Barbossa from _Pirates of the Caribbean_. She was forced to turn around, a broad hand squeezing her upper arm tightly. No, she took back her previous thoughts. The Dark Ace was the hammy Barbossa. And he wasn't as pleasant company as Barbossa might've been.

He stared down at her with those intense, red eyes, teeth bared in a grim smile that promised not-so-nice things to happen in the near future. Her heart leapt into her throat for the umpteenth time that night, her pulse throbbing and painful.

"Now, be a good little birdie, and I _might_ let you live through this. Do you understand me?"

She didn't like the sound of that '_might_'. She really didn't like it. She think she might've nodded, because he looked away from her and barked at his henchmen to get up in the air. When he turned back to her, he twisted her arm again, forcefully twirling on her heels. "Now get on. We're leaving."

"Where the hell are you taking me? You don't need me anymore," she finally snapped, not giving him an inch. The hand squeezed tighter, digging into her arm. It took all her willpower to keep her building cry of pain from spewing out of her mouth.

"Oh, I need you all right, for the Cyclonian cause, of course." He laughed, low and deep, before finally shoving her against the bike. "Get on, or you will not like the consequences if you don't."

"What did you do to their engines?" She turned, giving a baleful glare over her shoulder. She wished she hadn't, seeing that smile on the Dark Ace made her skin want to do more than simply crawl. It made her wish she could disappear and never come back again, it was just…_oozing_ evil, as cliché as it sounded in her head. But it fit, nonetheless, the way he gazed down at her like a snake did when it leered upon a poor, doomed mouse.

The response was smooth, at ease, and immediate. It also made Lupin dread why she had even asked in the first place. He once again forcefully manipulated her against the bike and bodily lifted her, making her sit on it. He got on behind her, and she wished, oh she really wished, she could've ridden with a henchmen. At least none of them made her skin feeling like it should be detaching from her body by now like the Dark Ace did. He just had that unpleasant affect on her, she just learned within the past five minutes.

"Leech crystals. They should be nice and fat with stored energy by now. I expect the Storm Hawks to be arriving back on their ship with a nice surprise soon."

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

**Translation:**

**_Dong le ma_: Do you understand?**

**Evil Dark Ace is evil. Yes. That is all. And he really is about as hammy as Barbossa is, there's no denying it. He's also fun to write, he really is. Also, short chapter is short. But, you already knew that. ;3**


	14. Prisoner

**Chapter Thirteen:**  
**Prisoner**

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_**Disclaimer: **_**All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them. **

**Note: Huzzah, another edited chapter! Enjoy.**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

_You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.  
_**- Leon Trotsky**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The ride back to the _Condor_ was a blur to him. He barely remembered anything other than racing back to his Skimmer, prepared to take off after the Dark Ace. The only vague impression he'd had was Piper reminding him that their Skimmers had little power enough as it was. Trying to take off would be a one-way ticket to a long drop and a sudden stop. After that, they were suddenly back in the _Condor_. He was sure he heard the sirens of the police not far off in the distance, most likely on their tails.

Stopping to listen for a few split seconds, Aerrow realized why it was a dreaded sound: it meant they were chasing someone, and he was sure it was them. _We must've broken their street laws_, he thought rather vaguely before finding himself on the bridge of the _Condor_, only to find the bridge empty. The others were just as confused. They all turned on their heels, ready to look for their missing carrier pilot when a sudden burst of light went off and illuminated the bridge. Everyone covered their faces at the light just as a stellar explosion and a massive shockwave following afterwards rocked the _Condor_. The old girl groaned and creaked in protest before it gave one final moan and fell quiet.

Mere minutes later, a rather singed looking Stork stumbled onto the bridge, his eyes wild and the one particular twitchy one was even twitchier than usual. Stork gave a mild laugh, slow and easy as he caught his breath. He had a mad, if angry grin on his face as he surveyed the faces of his fellow peers for moment, as if taking in their sudden appearance for the first time. Then he straightened, all humor gone and was replaced with a snarl.

"Those…damned Cyclonians! They rigged leech crystals inside the _Condor_! I _knew_ something wasn't right! I _knew_ that those bastards were following us! I _knew_ we shouldn't have left the _Condor_ unattended!"

Faces darkened at the mention of the Cyclonians. Junko clenched his large fists together and glared out towards the observation deck. "They took Lupin. They were going to take her friend, but she…she got him out of there and the Dark Ace—,"

"_The Dark Ace?_ Oh, we're doomed all right. They must've been following us when we crossed over and they came with us." Stork muttered darkly as he stalked towards the helm. "I'm surprised, actually, that they didn't try to finish us off in the beginning."

"They want us trapped here." Piper spat in anger. "The Dark Ace wants us to be _here_, so Cyclonia can take over and we'll know it happens, and we won't be able to stop it. The portals only open once a year and at random places in this world. It'd be more than just too late if that happened."

"Which is why they set up the leech crystals, to make sure we didn't get away, right?" Junko concluded. Radarr gave a growl that was more than just disgruntled. Finn's fingers twitched, as if ready to hold a crossbow and get ready to blast away.

"Then what're we waiting for? They're getting further and further away while we're standing around talking! Let's kick some Cyclonian tail!"

"Right. Stork, get us up in the air. Junko, go check on the engine crystals, make sure we'll have enough juice to get us off the ground and to our destination."

"On it!" Junko jerked a quick nod before taking off.

"If the crystals are working again, maybe I can squeeze out some extra power from my solaris crystal," Piper added and took off after the Wallop. Stork was already at the helm, prepping the _Condor_ for her ascent. Finn perked suddenly, brows furrowed before he gulped. He darted towards the observation deck and paled.

"Uh, Aerrow? I don't mean to interrupt or nothing, but…I think we got trouble on our tails! It's the po-po!"

"_The what?_" Stork directed his incredulous question towards Finn.

"The police! Those law enforcement guys Lupin's always worried about!"

Aerrow grimaced. _We must've _really_ broken some laws._

"Stork, get us off the ground now!"

"Um, in case you didn't know this, we're working at a limited capacity!"

"We'll be working with no capacity if those guys catch us! Step on it!" Finn countered. The lights and the sirens' wails were drawing closer. The _Condor_ abruptly gave a roar as systems began to methodically start up, the lights above them flickering before brightening. The familiar vibration from the engine turbines as they began whirring hummed through the decks.

Aerrow grinned, knowing Junko and Piper's handiwork when he saw it. Stork waited a few more seconds, alternating between muttering to himself about the systems controls and telling Finn to can it.

"They're here!"

"And we're gone! Atmos, here we come!" Stork gave a crow of delight as he jerked on the helm and the _Condor_ gave an almighty lurch and then took to the skies.

Down below, a row of police cruisers battled their way up the beaten dirt path to where the _Condor_ had once rested. When the first cruisers made it to the hidden plateau, they came to a screeching halt as their drivers and passengers alike stared in awe at the gargantuan ship taking off into the sky, much larger than any jumbo jet or space shuttle they'd ever seen.

The _Condor_ soon disappeared into the velvety black skies with only a blue vapor trail in its wake, making as quick a beeline for the skies above Los Angeles via Piper's directions.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The ride was cold. No, scratch that. It was freezing, ice cold, like snow and ice. Lupin would know this, because she'd been dogsledding before and damn near had frostbite on her feet on the last—and ironically, the coldest—night of her winter wonderland adventure a few years back. She could barely feel her toes now, like back then, and her face was raw and most likely very red from the rushing wind. It wasn't like she went flying on aerial motorcycles every day, let alone while wearing a rather exposed costume. She hugged her arms, trying to forget the fact that she was pinned effectively between the handlebars of a flying motorcycle and a complete monster in the guise of a man, who threatened to push her off at a couple thousand feet in the air if she so much as complained.

And, she had a very strong gut feeling that he'd make due of his word if she got smart-mouthed, especially at said couple thousand feet in the air. She'd finally made the prompt and smart decision to close her eyes to keep them from drying out, her tears freezing against her face and making it just a mite uncomfortable. It wasn't easy to keep to herself and away from the Dark Ace either, with him practically pressed against her backside.

Time passed. She wasn't sure how long. Hours, maybe She didn't want to look at her watch. She was afraid. She was scared for the Storm Hawks, scared that they had been left behind, scared of seeing that it was past midnight, past the allotted time in which they could go home. She was afraid that the leech crystals had done their job. Her silence on the outside only fed fuel to the fire for the questions that arose on the inside of her mind. How did the Dark Ace know where to go, what the coordinates were, where the Storm Hawks had been, how he found the party, everything! It didn't make any logical sense, and yet, here she was: his prisoner.

_Of war,_ her mind added and an unpleasant shiver crawled over her skin, making her shudder again.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, she heard one of the men in the Dark Ace's squadron shout, "Almost home, boys! We'll be celebratin' tonight! Those damned kids are finally gone!"

There was a collective cheer before that scathing voice behind her barked, "Think again! I want you to get more men when we land and scout the area, make sure that the Storm Hawks didn't try to follow us!" There was a grumble or two, but none spoke up against the Dark Ace.

A deep rumbling began to build up from somewhere to Lupin's left. Soon it grew to a bellowing growl before the crash of thunder rang out in the air. A concussion of several smaller thunder crashes followed suit. Lightning flashed and Lupin's eyes flew open in surprise. The skies around her were no longer the deep black skies she'd left. They were tinged with a deep red, and a permanent swath of cloud cover hid the ground below—if there was any ground to begin with. What lay ahead made Lupin's pulse quicken in fear as she saw the tall, black spire that was drawing closer as the Talon squadron flew straight for it. Smaller rings of crooked, jagged rock formations curved inward towards the tower, almost as if they were bowing to it. Lupin was reminded of the arched teeth of some wicked beast waiting to devour its next meal.

"Are you seeing this, girl? This is the grand empire of Cyclonia," the Dark Ace's voice rent through the air. "Your new home."

Not for the first time, Lupin felt the oncoming pricking of tears building up. She closed her eyes again, digging her fingers into her arms as she hugged herself all the more tighter.

She heard him chuckle, barely audible over the wind roaring in her ears alongside the near-deafening thunder.

"Oh, don't try and feel sorry for yourself now, girl! You brought this upon yourself when you decided to attack me!"

Lupin's grip tightened as she opened her eyes and stared out ahead. The tears were still there, threatening to break loose, but fear wasn't the only thing she was starting to make a nice, cozy home in her chest. The fire of anger and hatred was kindling nice and strong now; making her clench her jaw and muscles ache from the tension she was posing on them.

She was afraid, yes, but she was also angry: angry at herself, mostly, for not having the common sense to run off with Chase when she had her chance. She was angry at the Dark Ace, for using her as a shield against Aerrow and the others. But most of all, she was angry at that backwards explorer quack who visited her world in the first place and decided to manually open a doorway he didn't close all the way, Walter Drake. It seemed pointless, considering how dead he was now, but it didn't matter much to Lupin.

Anger was going to keep her fire going a lot farther than her fear ever would.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

As soon as they landed, she was yanked off the bike, her arm once more trapped in that vice-like grip by the Dark Ace.

"Get me some shackles for this girl. I don't fancy having her slip away with the use of her hands anytime soon." He glanced at her and sneered with an afterthought, "or lack thereof."

He had her wrists bound together by the metal cuffs not even a minute later. The chains jangled and she stared at her wrists, glaring at them, as if that action alone would break the cuffs. She said nothing and neither did she look up at him. It was only then did the Dark Ace notice the scrunched brow, the angry glare in the girl's blue-gray eyes, and the clench in her jaw, as well as her shaking fists. He found it amusing. She was shaking with rage, and yet she couldn't say anything to him at all, her fear must've paralyzed her to speak. He was close enough.

"If you have something to say," he cajoled, almost sickeningly sweet and yet venomous at the same time as he reached over and yanked her face up to look at him. He gave her a cold smile, one that matched his eyes, another message displayed in them at the same time: she was in _his_ territory now. "_Then say it._"

The hatred in her blue-gray eyes didn't diminish a bit. If anything, it seemed to cloud over even more. Finally, at length, she spoke only two words very slowly. "Fuck you."

Briefly, her language took him aback before he began to laugh. She continued to glare at him, almost as if her gaze could set him ablaze. He was certain that if the term, "_If looks could kill,_" he would be dead a hundred times over just by her gaze alone, never mind the glowers he received from his enemies. His hand lowered from her face to her throat and the surprise at the motion registered in her eyes for a split moment before the anger returned tenfold. He could feel her rapid pulse, feel it quicken as he gave a squeeze. He could have snapped her neck with his one hand if he so wished, he realized, she was that small around.

"I'd take this bit of advice if I were you, girl." He leaned closer as he continued, "you had better watch that mouth of yours, or I'll cut out your tongue. Do you understand me?"

Lupin said nothing, her fierce demeanor remaining in place. His hand moved away from her neck and replaced itself on her upper arm as he began to escort her away from the hanger bay where they'd landed. Already, she could tell she'd have a massive bruise there. But, when she snuck a glance at the Dark Ace, now that she was in an adequate light, saw that there was some blood on the side of his face, and already, a bruise was forming. She hid a smirk in spite of herself. _At least I won't be the only one banged up._

The small, unnoticeable smile faded as she had to follow the brisk pace set for her, working twice as hard to keep up. Not that she could fall behind, or anything. She knew she'd be dragged to wherever it was she was going, and at that thought, a feeling of dread came over her.

"What the hell do you need me for? I played your shield, what else do you want from me?" She had to ask.

The Dark Ace's eyes slid over to give her a sidelong glance before they flicked back forward. "If you must know, we're going to go see my master. Perhaps you've heard of her?"

He was smirking at her now, and Lupin would've stopped in her tracks when she thought of who he was talking about. And, if she could have, she probably would have ran off in the opposite direction. _Oh, oh, this is great! I just_ had _to lug the rock at his head!_ _Brilliant! Good job, no, really, fantastic! You pissed him off enough to have him hand you on a silver platter to his psychotic, anarchist master! Brilliant job, London, just outstanding!_

Her earlier pride with her accomplishment, however small, deflated in an instant when she heard the small chuckles coming from the Talon leader beside her. "I see the Storm Hawks have kept you duly informed. Good."

He sounded pleased. Lupin did not like that he sounded pleased, not one bit. Then again, who would, if they were in her situation?

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Master Cyclonis stood with her back to them when they entered, but the Dark Ace and Lupin—although he wasn't aware that she knew—knew that the young woman was quite aware of them. She was always alert, rarely caught of guard, always scrutinizing everyone around her as untrustworthy…except for her most loyal, right hand man, the Dark Ace, of course. The hooded cape she was almost always characteristically seen with began to unfurl and spread, creating the spiked collar that made her appear so menacing. There were no Cyclonian guards in the room at the moment, for which Lupin was grateful for. She didn't need any more eyes staring at her.

She still had not turned around, working on the enigmatic crystal machine Lupin remembered quite clearly from the first episode. She eyed the spindly little arms that grasped colorful crystals as they swept up and down, side to side, to the rhythm of Master Cyclonis's tapping on the keys. She swallowed. Her mouth was cotton dry as the rhythmic clicking of keys continued for several minutes. The Dark Ace paused from the platform when they finally stopped and gave a small bow of the head, eyes locked on the prominent figure ahead of him, his hand brought to his chest. "Master Cyclonis."

The clicking stopped, and the thin, spindly spider-like limbs of the machine stopped abruptly, and Master Cyclonis finally turned. She regarded the Dark Ace coolly with her amethyst eyes, a light smile tugging at her lips before those same eyes slid to Lupin and the smile faded. The amused recognition she held for the Dark Ace turned to ice as she seemed to inspect Lupin, like she was a piece of meat on a hook.

"Dark Ace…how nice of you to join Cyclonia after a week's worth of silence."

"I apologize, Master Cyclonis, for that. But I'm sure you've already seen the other three and heard the message I had sent for you."

"Yes, I have. It was quite an interesting tale of otherworldly portals, to be honest." Her gaze never left Lupin's face. The older woman chafed under those cold, relentless eyes and she wanted to fidget, but forced herself to keep still.

"And all of it true to the very letter. My men can attest to this new world and it's…differences."

"The people don't look so different from us," Master Cyclonis noted, nodding once, briefly, towards Lupin.

"They're not."

"I assume she's another gift, then?" Master Cyclonis artfully unfolded her hands that had been clasped in front of her, motioning towards the girl.

The Dark Ace brought the girl forward and the chains jangled noisily around her wrists and his smile grew a little broader. "Even better. An affiliate with the Storm Hawks. Another blow to them now that they are disposed of, trapped in her world. They shouldn't be a problem for us any longer. The other Sky Knights have grown lax, even with our empire breathing down their necks. They'll fall like dominoes without those pesky children botching up our grand plans."

Master Cyclonis was silent for a few moments, surveying the girl from head to toe, smirking slightly. Her eyes strayed to the eyeliner, the dark ensemble, the boots, the hair, just about everything that the Lupin had pulled together for her costume. She chafed once more under that scrutinizing gaze, almost as if those amethyst eyes were seeing right through her, poisoning her insides with her gaze alone. Lupin never thought she'd be intimidated by a kid younger than her, especially a young girl from a show about a world that shouldn't exist, and yet it does. It didn't bode well in her book. The smirk remained in place when she finally spoke again. "Ah. Well, then…does our _guest_ have a name?"

The Dark Ace cast another sidelong glance at Lupin, red eyes placid and disinterested.

"Does it matter?"

"It does if we're to have her part of our…family here in Cyclonia." Master Cyclonis said breezily, bringing her fingertips together to form a pyramid with her hands for a few seconds before turning her gaze back to Lupin. She motioned with one pale hand to her, eyes half-lidded. "Now, be a good girl and tell us your name, won't you?"

Lupin remained stony-faced and silent. The only thing that showed through was her anger—and perhaps her fear. A part of her hoped that this was all just a bad dream and that she'd wake up any moment, but she knew that it wasn't, no matter how hard she wished and hoped and, hell, even prayed. The silence pressed on for a good solid minute, but it felt like the longest minute to Lupin in her life as she felt Master Cyclonis's gaze bore down on her with that hidden malice just stirring beneath the surface.

When the minute of grace was up, the Dark Ace grabbed her arm and gave it a wrench before tossing her to her knees. "Show some respect, you brat! I saw fit to spare your life, but she won't be so kind! Speak, girl!"

The ache in her arm took longer to fade as Lupin slowly pushed herself to her feet. While she was angry, she wasn't stupid. _Time's up,_ she told herself. Lupin brought her gaze up to meet Master Cyclonis's, and grimaced at her before uttering, "Lupin."

"What's that? I can't hear you. Speak up." The younger girl said, and Lupin's heart fluttered nervously when she saw the impatience crossing over her face. She swallowed, licking at her dry lips.

She hesitated before saying in a louder voice, "My name's Lupin."

Lupin decided, in that moment when Master Cyclonis smiled at her, that the Dark Ace's smile was only about as half-bad. Master Cyclonis's smile was even worse than a snake's, if that were possible. With the Dark Ace, there was malice, passion, fire. With Master Cyclonis, there was ice and no emotion, her eyes not tipped with the same grace as her smile held. If the Dark Ace was the snake, than Master Cyclonis was worse than the snake. The younger woman stepped down from the dais where her machine was, her steps slow and deliberate. Lupin instinctively took a step back, the deep-down nature of the human psyche telling her to run for all she was worth, that if there was a fight, then she most definitely wouldn't win. _Not against this psycho bitch with her crystal skills._

"You see? She's learning already, and we didn't even need that much force. We're all civil people here, Lupin." She paused, before adding, "And I'm sure you're already acquainted with the Dark Ace, although I'm not sure you know who I am—,"

"Cyclonis."

The monosyllable answer rang throughout the room. Master Cyclonis pursed her lips and tilted her head just so, her only show of annoyance.

"Excuse me?"

"You're Cyclonis, Cyclonia's ruler." The young woman answered quietly. Master Cyclonis narrowed her eyes before something flew out from behind her to her hand. It took Lupin a split second before it was raised towards her that it was Master Cyclonis's staff. The crystal equipped with the staff flashed crimson, quick and hot as it arced towards Lupin like lightning. She was brought to her knees in an instant, her back arching with pain. The red-hot sparks flew periodically around the Lupin's flexing, aching body and she howled in pain. Her bound hands tried in vain to separate, but they merely jangled angrily, back and forth, cutting into her wrists.

Then it was over, just as quickly as it had begun. Master Cyclonis stared down at the girl, her lips pursed, although there was an amused light in her eyes now. Lupin doubled over in pain on her knees, her shoulders hunched over and back curved, as if that were a protective enough shell for her. Her face remained hidden by thick tresses of black hair, sweat clinging to her face. Sweat edged itself into the fresh cuts on her wrists, making them sting with a vengeance. She gasped for air a few times, gulping it down in long breathes.

"I believe you meant to say, _Master_ Cyclonis. If I were you, I'd learn to say it the correct way. Now…what is my name? Come now, I know you're a reasonably intelligent person. You've proven it to me so far."

Lupin, despite her incapacitated posture and blurry thoughts, bristled instantly at the question of her intelligence, but she reined back her temper and angrily screwed up her lips in a crooked line before lowering her head slightly. "_Master_ Cyclonis."

The Dark Ace looked at the girl, then back at Master Cyclonis. She hadn't miss the purposely spat out sarcasm. He expected her to give the young woman another taste of her staff, but Master Cyclonis merely smirked, lowering her weapon. "I guess it's a start, although it's a rather poor one." She lifted her head. "Please have the guards escort her to Professor Baldur's laboratory. I'd like a few words in private with you without our guest here."

He nodded once before barking behind him and the doors to the expansive room flung open. Four guards came in with practiced steps and after receiving their orders, yanked Lupin's prone form off the floor and forced her to get walking. She didn't miss her chance, however, to shoot one last venomous glare towards the Dark Ace, a look that promised—somehow, someway—a piece of his own medicine in the future. The Dark Ace only smirked at the young woman before she was led away and he was left alone with his master.

He turned to find her in front of her, her eyes calculating and cool as she studied his face and they moved to the still-tender wound on the side of his head. She reached up and gingerly brushed two fingers against it. He hid his wince, clenching his jaw slightly.

"She has quite an arm. If she conforms properly, we'll make a soldier out of her yet."

"She punched you?"

"No. She threw a rock at my head. Bold, but incredibly stupid, unlike the other three we captured."

Master Cyclonis chuckled, low and sultry before wandering back to the dais.

"Bit of a wild side she has, don't you agree?" She continued before pausing momentarily, pivoting on her heel to return to her machine.

"Indeed," he agreed. Master Cyclonis chuckled.

"Well then…I suppose that if she is going to _act_ like an animal…_then let's_ _treat_ _her like one._"

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

She was led deeper into the labyrinthine corridors, stairwells, hallways and passageways of Cyclonia, lower and lower she was led away. She felt dizzy and still ached in pain from that blast of Master Cyclonis's staff. Lupin berated herself for being so stupid. _Calling her Cyclonis like that, you knew something bad would happen, but nooooo, you just _had_ to go and test her, didn't ya, idiot? _

The guards remained oblivious to her internal wailing, only passing a brief word to others they breezed by while grouching at her to quit dawdling. Two in the front and two in the back flanked her, keeping her well-guarded from even thinking of an escape. Not that she had the energy, mind you. She was drained, physically and mentally. All she wanted to do was stop, curl up on the floor and pass out just to try and relieve the tension, stress, and pain her body was riddled with. Instead, she felt like she was hiking ten miles to get to some unknown location.

She stole a glance at her watch and could've sobbed, but choked it back just in time; her watch read that it was nearly five in the morning. and she had to ask herself how the time had flown. We must've been flying for longer than I realized.

It only made her chest tighten, her breathing short and strained_. Oh God, what about Aerrow and Piper and the others? _

A brief reminder of their torn expressions when she had been held in the crook of the Dark Ace's arm like a makeshift shield passed by in her head. She closed her eyes and had to force herself to take in a deeper breath to control herself. Her hands shook nervously, making the chains jangle a little louder.

_What if they…they didn't make it? _

The thought of the Dark Ace having planted leech crystals on the _Condor_—and perhaps even the Storm Hawks' Skimmers—made her gut churn and twist into unpleasant knots.

_They didn't know…dammit, they didn't know! That's probably why everything failed on them! But, how did the Dark Ace plant the crystals on them when they were flying into our world? Stork said that the systems failed when they entered our world._ The paradox stumped Lupin, but she remembered that the Dark Ace, as he said before, had once used to live on the _Condor_, years ago.

Then at that thought, she felt a shudder of disgust ripple down her backside at the thought of the man having once lived there. But she still had to wonder how it had gone down. He'd still know the nooks and crannies of his old ship, wouldn't he? At least, know enough of them to somehow plant a few of those leech crystals onto the ship without being noticed: long enough to plant the crystals, but quick enough to breech security.

She shuddered again.

At last, the guards made a final turn down another hallway and at the end of it was a large steel door with a metal grate for an eye peep. When they approached, one of the guards stepped briskly towards it and rapped on the heavy metal door three times. There was a collective silence that descended upon the small detail before the door's eye peep flew open and a pair of yellow reptilian eyes appeared in place of the metal grate.

"Vhat is it that you vant, Talon?"

"We've brought you another test subject, Professor Baldur. Female."

The reptilian eyes slid away from the Talon to her. They assessed her, much like Master Cyclonis's gaze had. A hiss came through the eye peep and an almost delighted gleam lit up those eyes.

"_Vunderbar!_ Bring her in, hurry, hurry. Put her vith the rest for the time being."

Crashes from the other side resounded towards them, clicks and grinds of metal on metal screeching that made them all cringe. The eye peep grate slid back into place as the door, perhaps about five or six inches thick, swung open slowly, ominously.

In the doorway's place, stood a Raptor, who was at about six and a half feet tall easily, clothed in a pair of gray trousers and a crisp, white lab coat. Lupin noted with a strange, alien curiosity that the Raptor's left hand was not flesh and blood, but replaced with delicate machinery. She couldn't help but compare it to what looked like the bare beginnings of automail from _Fullmetal Alchemist_.

The guards led her inside past the Raptor and his cold gaze. Much after that, it was a blur to her. She got the impression of work benches, long tables, beakers, Bunsen burners, test tubes, anything and everything under the spectrum of lab materials was there. Near the back of the laboratory were two doorways on either side of the walls. To her right was another heavy metal door much like the one they entered; only this one had a two-by-four cut out with thick metal bars in the middle of it. When she gave it a glance, she sighted what looked like a kennel of sorts. They were walking away with it to their backs before she could see even a single creature inside the back cages facing the door. It didn't make her any less curious from the various growls, moans, squeaks and howls coming through the grates.

They made for the other door, this one an exact replica of the kennel's door. Through these doors they went through, and once more, it was an exact replica of the kennel, except inside the cells, there weren't any animals. There were people, sitting on metal cots, with a makeshift toilet in the corner in each cell. It reminded her of a jail cell more than an animal kennel, which was exactly what it was, when she was shoved into an empty one by her Talon guards.

They jeered and laughed as they locked the sliding bar doors behind her, their footsteps clicking on the stone floor as they left. The metal door down the hall slammed shut and then she was left in silence. Lupin backed away up against the cot, and while it didn't exactly look all too cleanly, she felt a sudden wave of exhaustion sweep over her and it was either the cot or the floor. The cot looked like the lesser of evils, so slumping down on it and using her hands as a pillow, she curled into a tight ball on it, trying to slow her hammering, wiry thoughts.

Worry plagued her, making her stomach continue to twist in knots for the Storm Hawks. She kept asking herself if it was possible they found the leech crystals, and if so, did they make it to the portal on time? Despite her exhaustion and heavy lids, she was still wired with worry and anguish for them. When she finally closed her eyes and fell into a rather fitful sleep, she blissfully dreamed of nothing.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

**Baaawwww. Lupin's in trouble. And London, for a fun fact, is Lupin's real, _legal_ name. She just prefers Lupin for personal reasons. :3**


	15. Stories

**Chapter Fourteen:**  
**Stories**

**Reviewers:**

**Silveromance**

**Magus732**

**Tiggeranddash**

**Clouds on Monday**

**Namless Daydreamer**

**Wicca in Training**

_**Disclaimer: **_**All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them. **

**Note: I'm gonna throw some mind screws out there, just to let y'all know. Crazy shit to be had will happen.**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

**Wash:** _I don't want you to spare me, Mal. If you think you know what's happening then you tell me. You wouldn't spare Zoe if she were in this situation with you, would you? You would be planning, and plotting, and possibly scheming. So, whatever Zoe would do in this instance is what I'm gonna do. And you know why? Because no matter how ugly it gets, you two always came back. With the _stories_. So…I'm Zoe. No…what do I do?  
_**Mal:** _Probably not talk quite so much.  
_**-Wash and Mal, "**_**Firefly**_**"**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

She wasn't sure what awoke her at first. Perhaps it was the slow drip-dripping of water from somewhere in one of the cells—maybe even her own—that was prone to echo with each droplet hitting its mark. Maybe it was the crying of a child somewhere else, and a woman hushing him, telling him everything would be all right. Or, possibly it could've been her watch and its infernal alarm clock she'd set it at every morning for seven. The beeping was whining and persistent, and at last, she swiped a hand at its buttons and the thing fell silent. Lupin peeped her eyes open blearily, inhaling deeply and her lungs filled with the stagnant scent of…

Lupin wasn't sure what it was she was smelling, and she had a feeling she didn't know what it was. Rolling her legs off the cot and lifting herself up to sit at a hunch, she stared down at the stone floor beneath her feet. It took her a few minutes to gather her senses, figure out where she was, and how she'd gotten there. It all came to her in a blur at last.

She remembered the party from last night, the warehouse under attack, Chase's capture, the Dark Ace, Cyclonia, the Storm Hawks—

Her throat tightened at the thought of both her friends and the Storm Hawks. What would they tell the police? What would the police tell her parents? "_Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but your daughter was kidnapped by a homicidal maniac with a gang of flying motorcyclists and we have no leads,_" sounded close enough in her mind. And again, she thought of the Storm Hawks, wondering if they were still alive, if the leech crystals really had done their jobs, if—

_Stop, stop, stop it!_ She closed her eyes, shaking her thoughts away, trying to keep any and all negative images from leaking in. T_his isn't helping, this is…is…_

She blinked a few times, her thoughts coming to a standstill as she finally began to listen to everything around her. Yes, she could still hear those annoying dripping noises here and there, but the sounds of a child crying made her freeze up and listen harder. _A little kid in here?_ Suddenly, she wished she hadn't woken up just to hear that sound. Lupin wasn't the biggest fan of children—hell, she didn't even really want any, to be honest—but she didn't downright hate them.

Mingled with the child's crying—a little boy, if she was guessing right—was another voice, this one older with a kind of Southern twang to it, trying to be cajoling and soothing. Lupin found herself drawn into the voice rather than the words, seeing as she could barely hear and discern what they were. Lupin strode closer towards the wall by the neighboring cell was, listening to the woman speak softly.

She made out a few things, such as promising words that everything would be all right, mostly, or for the boy to be brave and strong no matter what. From the tiny wobble in the woman's tone, however, Lupin could tell she was just as scared as the kid felt. Lupin came to rest her back against the wall, curling up to rest her forehead against her knees, her arms wrapped around her legs. She sat there for a long time before being stunned into waking at the sound of the door down the hall that led into the small array of jail cells opened with a grinding clank.

The voice on the other side in the other cell adjacent to hers fell silent, other than a few hiccups from the boy. The woman's soothing tone was replaced by a gruffer one, loud and abrasive.

"Who the fuck you think you are, man, kidnapping me, eh? Answer me, lizard freak!"

A resounding thud and a sickening cry made Lupin flinch in response.

"You vould do vell to keep that tongue of yours in check, boy. Othervise…I might find a better use for it in one of my experiments!" Lupin reflected, however strange a time it was to do so, that this was the second threat she'd heard regarding tongues and them being cut out.

Scraping steps and groaning followed afterwards. The Raptor suddenly appeared, and hauling beside him was a young man. He had darker skin, scraggly dark brown hair, sharp features—and in an instant, Lupin recognized him, which was a miracle by her standards. She wasn't the type that did well with committing faces and names of people she barely knew to memory. But this guy, this young man, she knew him. It was the same guy she had beat in that street race just a few days ago.

All Lupin could do was gape as the Raptor and the young man stopped in front of the cell directly across Lupin's. The Raptor hummed to himself in a rather cheery manner as he took out a large ring of keys, found the right one, and opened the cell before shoving the young man inside. He collapsed in a heap on the stone floor, looking dazed as he rolled onto his back, groaning.

The Raptor turned and found her staring past him towards the young man. Her eyes flit up to the Raptor's face for the first time, and almost did a double-take. A long scar ran down the length of his face, from the top of his brow on the left, down the snout, across the right cheek, and to rest at the end of his lower mandible. It bunched the scales along his face, making it appear more gnarled than it was. It reminded Lupin of a scar on a snake she once had.

His yellow eyes studied her, and once more, Lupin felt like she was being inspected for something, and it quite frankly disturbed her. Then that reptilian face with its ugly scarred face twisted into a sharp-toothed smile. The Raptor with his mechanical hand and cold eyes and smile chuckled.

"Vell, now. Let me take a good look at you, my girl. Yes, yes, perfect health you appear to be in, good. Strong little limbs, a healthy mind, too I vould hope?" He twisted his head to the side, leaning forward, watching her from his scarred eye, which was half-lidded permanently because of the disfigurement. "Hmmm…a little on the scrawny side, I see. Not even vorthy of a snack, if I ever vanted one if you vere to fail. Ah, vell. The animals enjoy scraps."

Lupin bristled at the thought of becoming anyone's, or anything's, snack. She glared at him, but her mouth remained wired shut. The Raptor finally sighed and straightened, back and posture ramrod straight as he gave her one last look over. "I shall be back for you, my little human, vhen I have everything set up for your…arrival."

With a turn of his clawed foot, he promptly left, the tip of his tail held just a few inches above the ground. The slamming of the door again down the hall indicated he was gone at last. Lupin turned her gaze towards the prone young man again, frowning. He hadn't moved, hadn't even attempted to. The woman was talking again, speaking low and soft. After nearly twenty minutes of alternating between listening to the woman, and turning to look at the young man in the cell opposite hers, she finally found him awake and stirring.

He slowly propped himself up on his elbows, gave a few grunts and reached up to wipe his mouth of something. He froze, however, when he saw her watching him, and for a hot minute, they remained locked. When that minute or so was up, he finally pulled himself to his feet and ventured closer towards the bars, squinting at her.

"So you're the one they brought in, huh? Sucks to be you, eh."

"Yeah. It kind of does. But then again, it sucks to be you because you're stuck here, too, smart one." Lupin replied sharply. His brown eyes narrowed further.

"Don't I know you?"

"Maybe my victory dance at college, you did. I knocked you on your ass."

His eyes flew wide open, his nostrils flared and the grip on the bars tightened, making them shake more. "_You!_"

"Me," Lupin agreed loftily. She leaned her head against the stone wall. "Stuck here, same as you. How'd you even get here?"

"Those _pendejos_ promised to help me get rid of that damned ticket you got me—,"

"Hey, I told you that it wasn't my fault you were stupid enough to be driving like a maniac down that strip where the cops hang out all the time!"

"Shut up, you stupid bitch! It's your fault I got it!"

"You engaged me in that damned race, you _huan dan_! If you don't want a ticket, don't fucking race! _Wo de tien a_, use common sense, you stupid son of a bitch!" She hissed back. "If you didn't want a ticket, and if you didn't have the money to be paying one off, then don't race! Don't challenge someone to a race with the threat of cops around the area!"

It made her angry that he was getting hung up over it all, but she stopped herself from going any further. She took in a deep breath. "When did the Cyclonians even approach you?"

He glared at her for a long while before grunting and letting go of the bars. "The day I got my ticket. They appeared in the parking lot after you left." He paused. "Hey, where're your little friends? They run out on you when you got kidnapped too?"

He grinned darkly and the implied notion did not go amiss by Lupin. She clenched her jaw. "No. They actually fought to help me. Why, is that what happened to you? Awww, poor boy."

Neither of them said anything after that, simply glowering at one another. Lupin finally turned away. She had nothing left to say to him after that, but she mulled over what he said. The day he got his ticket, he'd said, was when they approached him. _The Dark Ace himself? Or was it just a few Talons under his orders?_ _But…that really does mean they were following us. _She hugged herself and shuddered at the thought of that. That means they could've struck at any given time, but they waited. They waited to attack the very night of the portal's opening…but how and where did they know where to go? The questions continued to pile up. But being stuck in that cell, without access to anyone other than the jerk across from her and the two in the cell adjacent to hers, there wasn't much she could use to try and put the facts together.

_The other two…maybe they know something! Or at least the lady will. Maybe._

Lupin stood abruptly and leaned against the wall, grabbing the bars so quickly, they rattled. "Hey! Hey, lady!"

She winced at her own brazen words, but she figured it was too late now to shut her trap. She heard the stone floor scraping, the little boy hiccup, and then, "Who's that?"

"Uh, your neighbor."

"Oh, right." She paused. "You're that girl who was with the Sky Knights, weren't you? The one with the nice house."

Lupin halted her next reply, off guard completely. "You…you're the one who left the journal? You're Drake's descendent?"

"Directly, yes. Funny, ain't it? I used t' hate that damned journal. It was all my mama and daddy ever worried about, asides from me. We moved all the time…makin' sure no one crossed over an' if they did, well…it's never really happened, to be honest. Not since my great-daddy tossed back a few civvies from Atmos where they came from."

Lupin mulled over the woman's words, rapidly repeating them over and over in her head.

"Is…is that why Drake never left?"

"He opened a door and it never closed all the way, I guess."

"…What's your name?"

"Emily."

The other woman remained quiet for a time as Lupin slumped back onto her butt and against the cell bars. "Jesus."

"I know, right? Not a great name, I admit, but—,"

"Not that. This…stuff is just…big. Uh…" She blinked a few times, wiping at the cold sweat that had just appeared off of her brow and tried to calm herself. "So…so, Drake, he-he stayed, to make sure if anyone crossed over like he did, he made sure to have them sent back."

"Right. Y'see, the portal opens up anywhere and everywhere on the planet, different places, just a little after the fall equinox. It's a result of the—,"

"Tilting of the earth's axis, I know." Lupin sighed before adding, "Sorry, I just got…"

"Yer mind blown? Yeah, it happens. I grew up with it, see, same as my brother Danny here—,"

"Your brother's here?"

The woman hesitated before sighing. "Yeah. Y'see…after our mama, she dropped off the book with that letter to your house. I was…there when it was dropped off, in the front seat. My brother had asked why we were moving again, and she told him because we had to watch the skies for Atmos." Emily took in a deep breath. "We were packing up, all four of us: mama, daddy, Danny and I. That was when they came and took us. Don't know how they knew where to find us. We don't let many people know outside or even in the family, unless they already know, about Atmos and stuff. But I guess people from Atmos don't really count none about keeping it a secret from, right?"

"Right." Lupin agreed on reflex.

"That dark-haired guy with those freaky eyes…he came and took Danny and me away and stuffed us in an old house with that other guy over there. And he wouldn't shut up about how his 'homeboys' or something would kick all our asses if he wasn't let go immediately. Guess they can't help us none now, right?"

Emily laughed and Lupin rolled her eyes, sharing a grin. They both laughed when the young man shouted at them and grumbled further obscenities. Then the laughter died down and an awkward silence fell over Lupin. She had a lot to ask, but wasn't sure where to begin with. So, she tried picking through everything, trying to find relevant questions that might have helpful answers.

"I know you probably already know this, but…I got a few questions."

"Shoot."

"Have you ever read Walter Drake's journal?"

"It's…well, I…I never really read it. Mama and daddy always kept it under lock and key. They were real paranoid about it getting messed up or lost or stolen. Sorry."

Crestfallen, Lupin tried reassessing her questions. "Well…have they ever talked about how the portals worked? Maybe found some clue to his portals and a way to shut it off?"

"No, not really. I'm real sorry, but I don't know that much. I was supposed to start reading it later in the spring, after my birthday. Everyone in my family at fifteen has to, because one day, they'll have to take care of the book. Not that it matters, I mean, we have like, three copies!"

"Copies?"

"Well, duh. The one mama gave your Sky Knight friends, _that_ one's the original. Mama said that if a Sky Knight or his squadron ever came through, they'd leave the original with them, because the Atmos deserves book for their records, to know what happened to ole Drake." There was a pause before Emily added, "plus, the original is all old and stuff. It looks real ready to fall apart, ya know? Plus, that cursive's a damn pain to read."

"I thought you said you never read it?" Lupin replied.

"Uh, well…I haven't read it, I've seen the cursive. From the kitchen table when I was younger. Mama and daddy were lookin' over the next coordinates and stuff, trying to see where we'd move next to."

Emily sighed and something, perhaps her fist, banged against the cell door. "I hate movin' all the time. I never get to make any real friends, I never stay in one school long enough, and…" Emily growled and another clang, louder this time, rang in the air. "Dammit, it's not fair! Why did that bastard even come here! What was the point? Old senile jerk. This place ain't even my world! And now I'm stuck here."

"I'm sorry." Lupin offered. Emily grunted.

"Not your fault, hun. Not yours at all. It's just…not fair. Bein' told from the minute yer born that you have to waste your life watching after some _portal_ that likes to hop around all over the world and junk. And the funny thing is, the second someone does come through the portal, they end up with some kid. No offense."

"I'm actually almost twenty, but thank you," Lupin muttered in response. It wasn't the first time someone mistook her for younger than she really was if she didn't dress herself up. It most likely wouldn't be the last. Her mother and aunt were the same way.

"Oh. Sorry." Emily tittered before continuing, "like I said, it's not that we weren't watching that night, it's just…we couldn't get to them. They were flying real high in the air. And for some reason, they weren't hailin' our radio calls."

Lupin's face darkened. "That's because the Dark Ace, the freaky-eyed guy, he stuck a bunch of leech crystals on their ship. It drained their energy and some of the smaller equipment died first. The ship, it…"

"Yeah?"

"Never mind. Those crystals were probably why they didn't hail your signals. Is that what you do, though? Your family I mean. They look for anyone and if someone shows up, then they just…send them back after radioing them?"

"Well…I guess. Like I said, I don't really recall much. Never had anyone cross over, not until this week. And previous times, they'd all been civilians of Atmos, maybe one Sky Knight, but never a whole squadron of Sky Knights _and_ their ship!" The wonder and awe in Emily's voice, it made Lupin laugh. It really was amazing to see up close and personal, but it also brought to Lupin's attention of the fact that the _Condor_, the Storm Hawks, this world and everything in it—it shouldn't be real. How could any of this even exist if it wasn't real?

_Or maybe it is real, and someone from Emily's family gave the idea to make a show of the Storm Hawks. But…how would they even know? Or maybe someone from Atmos did cross over and they didn't realize?_ She was really irked now, and she wanted to ask, desperately wanted to, but couldn't find the courage to ask. _What if she doesn't know? What if she doesn't know about the Storm Hawks and the show? I mean, the show, it's not that wide-spread, not that it's not popular, it just isn't advertised or marketed very well. Or something like that. _

Lupin held back her tongue and kept her questions in check as she continued to press Emily for information. Emily, in turn, answered accordingly, but after a while, Lupin began to notice the girl was avoiding certain questions and giving vague answers. Lupin wasn't exactly the greatest person with tact, and subtly was most definitely not her middle name. She was, by nature, blunt and straightforward and hated beating around the bush. It took all her willpower not to blurt something stupid out and screwing herself over. _I have to be a lot more careful about what I say, now…not that I shouldn't be in the first place…_

The fact that her friends had been able to discern who the Storm Hawks were was pure luck and dumb chance. She sighed and slowly tapped the back of her head against the stone wall, eyes closed. _Dammit, why couldn't this be all simple? Why did the Dark Ace have to be such a prick and…follow Aerrow and the others? They were supposed to go home! Simple as that!_

"So…how did you know where to find us? I mean, if the portal was somewhere over Los Angeles, then…how did you know where to go?"

Emily chuckled from the other side of the wall. "Mama drove real fast, and we lived in that valley anyways, so daddy was keepin' an eye on things too, just in case, while we were rushin' to get back. Things got pretty hectic. But we found 'em, all right."

"You lived in Simi?" Lupin asked in surprise. As surprising as it was that the Storm Hawks had been traced so easily by Emily and her family, there was also the fact that they were conveniently located in her town as well. Then again, she had recently found out that she had cousins and aunts and uncles living in her town, for years in fact, and in that recent time frame, have had several family get together parties with one another. It really was a small world.

"Well, yeah. It's better'n the other towns surroundin' the area. Los Angeles was too crowded, Northridge and Chatsworth were crawlin' with bad neighborhoods, Moorpark was too spread out and Simi, well…it was a nicer area. For Danny, I mean. They wanted him to be in a good school that didn't run the high risk of someone carryin' a gun or a shiv in their pockets."

"Guess your mama and mine would've gotten along great. She thought the same thing too, when we moved there when I was young." Lupin said, sighing. She fidgeted with her hands. She picked at the black skirt sewn onto the band of her black pants. Her boots were scuffed and worn from use. The wolf tail she'd added to the back was slightly frayed and looked like it was poofed up in agitation. Lupin began tugging the faux fangs out of her mouth, only just realizing they were still in there. _I could've swallowed these in my sleep by accident. Stupid. _

She tossed them across the room, where they bounced with small clicks, bounced against the adjacent wall, before resting in the middle of the floor. She turned her eyes towards the cell with the young man. He was lying on his cot, the crown of his head facing her, arms propped on the back of his head. She went back to staring at the wall opposite hers.

"Hey, Emily."

"Yeah?"

"You ever hear of the Storm Hawks?"

"Other than they're the Sky Knight squadron that came through a few days ago, and passing stories from mama from Drake's book, no I don't reckon I do. Why?"

"I made good friends with them…when they were staying with me. But…I gotta ask, why didn't y'all come and get them, if you knew where they were? I mean, your mama dropped off the book, but you didn't try to make contact. Why is that?"

For a long time, Emily didn't say anything. Lupin wondered what she looked like. She was also wondering what she was doing. She hadn't heard Danny, her little brother, making any noise or comments. She figured he might be sleeping.

"Mama said that as long as they didn't hear no trouble going on in town, that they'd only observe from afar. Either mama or daddy kept an eye on y'all at all times. I'm surprised you didn't notice anyone following you."

The moment Emily said that, Lupin felt rather stupid and flushed in embarrassment. She pressed her brow against her knees, hugged her legs tightly against her chest and groaned.

"I didn't. God, what an idiot I am!"

"It happens. But you shoulda noticed."

Lupin groaned again. "Were you ever around?"

"Yep!"

"Aw, goddammit!" Lupin bemoaned once again, smacking her head against her knees. "What the fuck, man? You could've helped us out, save us a lot of headaches trying to figure this shit out!"

"Hey, if y'all were smart enough to figure out where the next portal was, then I'm sure everything'll work out fine. They're Sky Knights, right? They're supposed to be defenders of Atmos 'n all that junk. They'll come and kick these sorry losers' butts and get us out of here!" The optimism in which the younger girl expressed was so carefree and infectious that Lupin wanted it to be true. But she all too clearly remembered the leech crystals that the Dark Ace had mentioned.

She curled up tighter, feeling guiltier by the minute. _It's my fault if they're stuck in my world. It'll be my fault for going on and getting myself caught like a damned fish on a hook! I should've ran with Chase instead of standing around like an idiot!_

But, even if they found the leech crystals, what would happen if they tried to push the limited capacity of the engine crystals to make it on time to the air space above Los Angeles? It was only an hour away by car, depending on traffic, from where she lived. She didn't know how quickly it would be by air. She also didn't know how quickly it would be by air, in a massive aircraft like the _Condor_, near an international airport—namely LAX—would do in terms of attention. Wouldn't it blip on the tower's radio down at the airport? Wouldn't it attract attention? What if someone else flying around out there, whether on accident or on purpose, ended up in Atmos?

_Dammit, this isn't helping! They…they have to have made it!_ While bleak, she wanted to keep the hope that they were here, somewhere back in Atmos. If the Dark Ace and his squadron of Talons on their Skimmers managed to make it on time, then the _Condor_ should make it in half that time, with more engine power and speed put in behind it, low capacity or no.

…_Shouldn't it? _

Lupin was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't notice her cell door being opened until she was yanked to her feet by none other than the Raptor in the lab coat. He was holding her arm with his metal hand, she noticed vaguely, but she was more concerned with the nasty smile spread across his reptilian face.

"It's time for your testing, my little human girl. No time like the present, yes?" He chuckled eerily and began tugging Lupin to follow. Lupin would've resisted, but at the last second, wondered if it was worth the trouble, so why bother? She could either go willingly, as much as her instincts told her not to, or she could go kicking and screaming to her heart's content. She knew for a fact that she was about as easy to pick up as a backpack, so she didn't fancy being slung around like a bag of potatoes. It seemed less painful that way.

She cast a glance over her shoulder, wishing that Emily and Danny's cell was the one closer to the door, but it wasn't. She spotted the young man in the cell across from hers sitting up to watch, face impassive and blank. She was surprised that he wasn't sneering in amusement at her discomfort.

The Raptor led her out of the jailed area and back into the adjoined, larger room. The first thing Lupin took note of, things she failed to notice her first go round, were the crystals. They were everywhere, of all shapes and sizes and colors, sitting in large beakers, containers, boxes, on tables and racks. Lupin eyed all of them, unsure of what to make of them as they passed down a long metal table full of them on either side. She looked at the Raptor escorting her, but he said nothing as he led her to an area with a smaller table and a chair beside it.

He motioned for her to get on the table and she did so. He eyed the fake wolf tail that hung off the side of the table's edge and picked at it with his metal hand. "Vhat is this?"

Lupin pried it away, careful not to touch the metal appendage. "Part of a costume for a party I was at, before that jerkoff kidnapped me, thank you very much."

The words had simply spilled out and if Lupin were in better spirits, she probably would've chosen her words more carefully. Reflecting on them the second after they came out, however, made her wish she hadn't said anything at all. She winced, waiting for a harsh reprimand, but the Raptor simply stared at her before shaking his head, and turning away, muttering under his breath.

"Crazy young people und their antics. Never understand them at all."

He turned towards a metal cabinet that seemed so oddly out of place in the laboratory setting, and yet at the same time, appropriate. He began pulling out several items, and most of them, Lupin noted, were needles. He eyed several of them, then her, shook his head a few times, continued pulling other things from the cabinets and drawers before laying them out on the table beside her. She eyed them all with a frown.

"What…exactly are you going to do to me?"

"A physical, of course! Make sure you are as healthy as you appear on the outside und not sickly on the inside. Vouldn't do to have a sickly test subject, now vould it?"

"Test subject for what?" Lupin pressed, her heart beginning to hammer a little harder, a little more nervously in her chest. She could feel her pulse rising, little by little as he reached for her arm. Instinctively, she yanked back, and at the same time, wanted to hop from the table and run off, play stay away from the lizard-man. He sighed in aggravation and yanked her arm in a vice-like grip. He began to swab at her arm in furious little circles with a cotton ball soaked in what she suspected to be ethanol, judging from the smell of it.

"Vhy, for my Splicer Program, of course, my little human girl. Something that is very old, in fact, but never thoroughly practiced. That damned Sky Council made sure of that years ago." He paused as he gathered up an elastic band and tied it tight around Lupin's forearm. He tapped at her arm a few times, eyed the veins that began bulging and picked up an empty needle. "Combine the human body vith that of an animal's genetic traits, just think of the possibilities! Imagine having the senses of a Vulcan Wolf or Track Beast, or even a Widow's Serpent. They are endless, my little human girl…und you have the honor of becoming part of it."

His yellow eyes gleamed in a mad way, as in, madder than the Mad Hatter kind of way. Nutty like Heath Ledger's Joker portrayal, even. Lupin wanted to yank her arm away, but he was keeping hold of it pretty tightly and before she could even say anything, dug the needle into her arm. He drew blood, filling the syringe up till it was full, took a cotton ball and pressed it to her needle stick wound.

"Now, I am sure that you being from another vorld, you don't know vhat animals ve have here in Atmos. That is just fine. I vill choose for you." He was speaking like he was choosing her an outfit because she was too young to do it herself now, rambling on about the different species he had stored in the kennel, looking quite excited. She didn't commit any to memory, she was still freaked at the thought of becoming some sort of lab rat.

"Und I have come close to perfecting the crystal combination to achieve all this! Years of toiling und failed experiments! My very first turned out to be a disaster, you see, und very messy to clean up after—oh, the blood! So much of it! Grotesque mess left behind und it began to liquefy almost an hour after being dead."

Lupin's gut twisted at the mention of that. Now, to start with, Lupin was anything but squeamish. She could watch a gory movie or medical show with all the bloody details, sit there and eat dinner like it was right there really happening in front of her. But to actually hear of something like a liquefying dead body and that happening to _her_…

She felt like puking at that thought alone, her stomach roiling despite her best efforts to try and keep calm. _I should've asked Emily what they planned on doing. _

Everything else that the Raptor—_Professor something_, Lupin vaguely corrected not remembering his name other than it started with a 'B'—did after he mentioned liquefying bodies was a kind of blur to Lupin. He drew some more blood, checked her eyes and ears…

Typical things she would expect from an annual doctor's visit and not from a mad scientist hiding under an evil empire's stronghold. He even had her strip—much to her embarrassment, red-faced and all—so that he could see if there were any abnormalities, such as birth marks or strange growths. He lingered on her tattoos covering her back, shoulder and hand, asking about them. The Autobot sigil between her shoulder blades; the tribal Egyptian Ankh she had designed herself down her spine; the paw print with a silver pentagram on her left shoulder; and the four-leafed clover with the number thirteen on the back of her left hand.

He seemed interested, but when Lupin watched his face, his eyes—she saw that he only had that cold gleam still there, and kept her answers short and clipped. She couldn't get dressed more quickly when he finally waved a dismissive metal hand at her to do so, turning back to his papers he had on another table and scribbling down on them. He did this for another ten minutes, muttering under his breath, his drawn out s's especially pronounced to Lupin's ears as she hugged herself, trying to rewarm her chilly arms.

The Raptor finally turned back to her, giving her a feral grin that showed his sharp teeth. She was reminded more of a shark than a lizard the moment he turned to her with that smile.

"Perfect health, my little human girl. Just like the other three! Perfect. Two females, two males und good health. Now, ve'll need a control group, und then ve'll need the experimental group…"

She vaguely remembered being led back to her cell soon after that. She had shut out most of the professor's ramblings, still feeling nauseous and sick to her stomach. The one thing that remained constant in her mind was her mantra of hoping that somehow, someway, the Storm Hawks had come through the portal and get them all out.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

**Translations: **

**_Pendejo_—(Spanish) dumbass, idiot, stupid**

**_Huan dan_—(Chinese) jerk, bastard, scoundrel; literally, "bastard egg"**

**_Wo de tien a_—Dear God in heaven**

**Long chapter, lots of questions, a few answers, but some went unanswered. Things will be answered in time. Don't worry, they will. Maybe.**


	16. Time

**Chapter Fifteen:  
****Time**

**Reviewers:**

**XxXTwilight-SinXxX**

**Mahou Shoujo Cystalic Katomi**

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**BlueSapphireGirl**

**Wicca in Training**

_**Disclaimer: **_**All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them.**

_**Note:**_** Professor Baldur's name is German. He's a German-accented Raptor. Just go with it. If we can have pots-and-pans-for-armor wearing, French-accented civvie-soldiers (Dove and her loveably kooky grandpa Wren, anyone?), then I can have a damned German-accented Raptor.**

**Also...huzzah, a Storm Hawks central! I needed to get one out there. :3**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

**Mal: **_Well, look at this! Appears we got here in the nick of time. What does that make us?  
_**Zoe: **_Big damn heroes, sir.  
_**Mal: **_Ain't we just?  
_**-Mal and Zoe, "**_**Firefly**_**"**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The skies were theirs once again. It seemed unbelievable at first, like it had been their first night in the other world. But after confirmation from Piper, they were back in Atmos. It was the only source of good news, unfortunately. The skies were clear of any Cyclonians making a quick hightail back to Cyclonia. There was also the matter of finding out where they were.

That took them longer than they liked. They wasted nearly two days with that. The hours dragged, the nervous ticks escalated, and it wasn't until Finn, who was searching through the periscopes, announced that they finally found a terra. The terra turned out to be Terra Gale. They arrived mid-afternoon, and were greeted and escorted back to the terra by Rayker and his squadron, the Rebel Ducks.

While the engine crystals and other essential supplies were replaced, Aerrow and Piper consorted with Rayker, telling the man about their time in the other world. At first, Rayker was skeptical, which wasn't much of a surprise. After Piper brought out several maps, books, and even Walter Drake's journal however, swiftly changed his mind. "But why are you flying into Cyclonian territory? You're back, there's nothing left for you."

"The Dark Ace kidnapped the one who was helping us. Her name's Lupin and she, well..." Piper hesitated, at a loss for words. She looked down at the old wizened journal in her hands, brows knit lightly.

"She's our friend. And we're not going to abandon her." Aerrow finished, looking Rayker in the eye. "Can you help us?"

Rayker faltered at the words, opening his mouth to answer, before closing it and looking away. "As much as I'd like to, Aerrow, I can't. We're still rebuilding here. They'll need us here on Terra Gale. We can't leave its citizens unguarded."

As much as the answer was a disappointment, it was understandable. Rebuilding their broken community was important, and Aerrow wouldn't argue the point. He and Piper thanked Rayker for the help he and the others had given, and not long afterwards, departed.

Convening on the bridge with the others, they circled around the table, looking over the spreadsheet of the map of Atmos. Several known terras were gathered on the left side, to the west, such as Terra Atmosia, Terra Xoam, Terra Tropica, and Terra Amazonia. To the south, there was Terra Bogaton, Terra Saharr, and several uninhabited, dry-seasoned terras. More to the northern sectors were colder weathered terras, such as Terra Blizzaris. To the east was a large portion dedicated to the Great Expanse, while in the north eastern quadrant, Cyclonia ruled strong. There were scribbled notes here and there, like '_Cyclonia sux!_' in the corner beneath the name.

Piper pointed at it, looking over everyone's faces. "Now that we've got our supplies and priorities straight, let's move onto the next item on the agenda. Getting Lupin back."

The plan was simple enough, when it came down to the very bare basics. Slip into Cyclonia, like on their very first real mission together. Piper, thankfully enough, deducted that the Raptors most likely wouldn't be awaiting them in the pipe lines, so the _Condor_ would be safe. Stork seemed pleased enough by that, but not enough to stop bemoaning the terrible doom they'd face by going into Cyclonia.

"But we're not going to do what we did the first time, we'll all head through the pipe systems together. The dungeons are located near the bottom of Cyclonia, and the pipe systems are just beneath that. We'll be in and out before anyone even notices!"

The details, however, were a little complicated. Although, after going over the details and hammering them in, they all seemed confident enough to execute it accordingly. Piper could only hope that the others would at least, for once, follow everything to the letter. She rather doubted it, though, considering the previous blunders that had to depend on improvisation she could recall. It never hurt to be optimistic, though.

The flight to Cyclonia, however, would be another three days' worth of flying with the route they were taking. They were depending on stealth, on the sheer hope that the Dark Ace and Master Cyclonis all believed they were stuck in the other world, that they hadn't crossed back over. It didn't bode well, and they all wished for better luck, better engine power, better everything, anything to tip the scales in their favor. The most they had, which they were grateful for in the least, was good weather. That had to count for something.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The Wastelands were aptly named. It was nothing but a place of fire and ash, of death and despair and no hope of seeing the clear, blue skies of Atmos again if one made a deadly mistake down there. The creatures that lived there, that learned to thrive in such harsh living conditions; they were tough and rugged, like their landscape and place of birth. There were giant scorpions, fire eels, and poisonous rock snakes that dwelled in the caves. There were echo bats that loved to strike at unsuspecting riders who were foolish enough to fly at low altitudes close to the air space just above the Wastelands. These were but a few of the species that lived down in the Wastelands, and all were unforgiving in their battle to thrive down in the Wastelands.

The _Condor_ flew in low enough to witness the smoke and ash rising from the lava fields. Often times Stork had to lift the _Condor_ up from the Wastelands, just above the ash, so that the rest of the Storm Hawks could clean the ship's filters and engine just enough to keep the _Condor_ from failing. The heat inside the _Condor_ grew to a sweltering degree.

Everyone was always uncomfortably hot and sweating. Junko and Finn were sprawled on the couch together, waving their hands in exaggerated fan motions, panting. Radarr lay on top of Junko's chest, doing the same, whining and chugging water whenever he could. While he couldn't sweat, he didn't like being so hot, and sorely wished for a cold bath. Piper walked into the bridge and sucked in a deep breath, wiping the sweat from her brow.

Finn peeped his head up from the couch's top. "How much further, Piper? I'm dying over here!"

"Drink water," Piper replied.

"But water's so gross and bland and we don't have any more soda!"

"Drink water. You'll at least be hydrated." She instructed more firmly.

Finn slumped back on the couch and grumbled. Piper settled besides Stork, looking out across the Wastelands set before them. The Merb shuddered when he spotted a few giant scorpions on a nearby rock formation, waving their pincers in their direction. They were, thankfully, too far out of reach to be of any nuisance or trouble to the _Condor_ and they drifted by unharmed.

"We're almost there. Might want to tell Aerrow and get ready. I expect we'll be there within the hour."

True to his word, Stork was right. Through the ash and heat's haze came the familiar craggy mountainside that began the very base of Cyclonia's terra. The further up they ascended, their inclined direction soon revealed the metal piping that led out of Cyclonia and into the Wastelands. And, it was the Storm Hawks' way into Cyclonia.

Old maps had been leaked from Cyclonia, age-old ones that showed the underground pipe systems and Piper was the one guiding them through the labyrinthine tunnel work. Thankfully, nothing much had changed in regards to the underground tunnels that were underneath Cyclonia. It was the same as before when Piper and Stork had navigated it, nearly a year prior—only this time, they didn't have any blood-thirsty Raptors on their tails; that was for sure. At least Stork had enough leisure to keep the _Condor_ from scratching or banging against the sides of the metal piping. But, at the same time, they didn't have that leisurely time to waste.

It wasn't until Piper finally exclaimed, "There!" that everyone began to stir, their muscles tensing as she motioned to the aforementioned piping that loomed above them. In bold, blocky stencils, the number _**43**_was clearly visible. Radarr gave a crow of triumph, teeth bared, excitement shining in his yellow eyes. Aerrow was sharing his enthusiasm as they drew closer, but withheld for the time being. He'd have his chance to show it later on when the right time came to be.

"All right, we're here then. Stork, land the _Condor_, but keep the engines running hot. We might have some unwanted company on our heels when we come back."

"If you come back," Stork added. Aerrow, despite the slightly downer comment, grinned.

"We'll be back. Don't worry."

"Oh, I'm not. I'm just curious as to how long it'll take the Cyclonians to notice that we're here."

"Hopefully, they never will. But, we'll have a backup plan just in case. Everyone ready to head out?" He turned to the rest of the squadron, and noted their determined faces and the resolute nods they gave him before adding, "All right. Storm Hawks, let's roll out!"

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The infiltration heading for the plan was a cinch. Thanks to some of their tactful acquiring of Cyclonian uniforms over the past year, they were able to sneak through the halls and corridors with little interference. Junko and Piper took to the Cyclonian Talon uniforms, respectively, while Aerrow and Finn took to maintenance crew uniforms. Radarr took his curled position inside the maintenance tool box they'd brought with them, although Aerrow left it cracked open a little to allow his friend to breath. Radarr kept quiet and still as they made their way into the stronghold, holding back growls and hisses as they ventured deeper. They passed by other Talons almost too easily, it was practically laughable. Piper tactfully led them through the confusing mess, although they got turned around several times. Some of the maps were outdated, she admitted sheepishly after reconfiguring several adjustments here and there with her pen and redrawing new routes that weren't on the old map.

After the last one, however, they finally made it to the dungeons and from there, began to systematically go through the cells. Most were emptied, although several contained decrepit, broken souls who had been unfortunate enough to be thrown in there. Sadder still, they were Talons themselves, perhaps being punished for insubordination or lack of results in their performance. While it was a rather pitiful sight, they couldn't blow their cover and free any of those that weren't Talons.

When they came to the last cell, Piper stood staring shell shocked at the map in her hands, a frown tugging at her lips. "I just don't get it. This place is almost as big as Zartacla, but there's only one dungeon sector in all of Cyclonia, and this is it. This can't be right. Did Master Cyclonis renovate for more room?"

They had backtracked their way to the front of the dungeon's entrance, a thankful revelation that it, for the moment, wasn't guarded. It wasn't like they had any enemies to withhold, only their own men and perhaps the few non-Talons. It was either confidence or stupidity that kept them as lax as they were. One had to wonder how Master Cyclonis would react if she were to find out the laziness of her men when it came to the guarding of her own dungeons.

"Well, most of the cells are empty, why would she do that? I mean, we looked in every cell. There's like, six guys and that's it." Junko frowned, brows making a heavy ridge line over the red-tinted goggles. He glanced back down the long corridor and peered into several more cells, to double check, waving the crystal staff in his hands through the metal grates. They were just as empty now as they were a few minutes ago.

"Then there's something more. We're missing something. Where else would Master Cyclonis take prisoners if not the dungeons?"

Finn opened his mouth to say something, but gulped it back down at the sound of loud, braying voices coming their way. The others heard too, and froze for a moment, before they hurriedly busied themselves over the map just as three Talons came rounding the corner, boisterous loud and their echoing voices making them even louder.

When they came around the corner to the still-over-the-map busy Storm Hawks, they paused, and took in the sight. One eyed Junko with a rather suspicious glint in his eyes behind the goggles before he let out a guffaw. "So, Master Cyclonis managed to snag a Wallop, then huh? She's been trying to knock on that terra's front door for months now!"

Junko's ears swiveled at that bit of information, so brashly and casually thrown out, but he kept his curiosity in check, holding back the questions. He merely looked up and straightened himself to his full height. The men flinched at the Wallop, forgetting how tall they could be before relaxing a little.

"So, what the hell are you doing down here?"

"Uh. Uh, we got turned around, here. Our maps, they're—,"

"Outdated, and we're new here. Think you can help us out?" Piper finished, to which she glanced up at the Wallop, who nodded in quick enthusiasm. The Talons regarded the two before glancing at the other young men behind them. Unlike Piper and Junko, who could partially hide their identities through goggles, Finn and Aerrow were at a disadvantage. If any Talon were to recognize them from any previous engagements they'd had before, they would be in more than a mite of trouble.

The Talons took in the repairmen uniforms a moment longer before grunting and nodding to one another. "Eh, yeah, we get it. We'll loan you ours, we tend to get lost in this maze ourselves. Thornton, give 'em yer map."

The shortest of the Talons, and perhaps the youngest looking, jolted in alarm at being addressed. "What, why do I have to give up mine? You've been here longer'n me."

"We'll get you a new one, green horn. Now give it up."

The young Talon, perhaps eighteen or nineteen, grumbled as he fished out the map from his boot, having kept it tucked away. Piper accepted the folded parchment, ignoring the faint musty scent of socked boot feet before giving a nod of thanks.

"Thanks. By the way, we were wondering if you could help point us in the right direction? We were told to take care of some new prisoner, but she isn't here. Any idea where she might be?"

The three Talons exchanged looks, a genuine confusion running across their faces before Thornton, the youngest Talon, snapped his fingers. "Oh, right, that scrawny girl from the other nights. Kinda like a double of Master Cyclonis, I was almost doing double-takes when the Dark Ace had her taken away in cuffs!" The three shared a set of laughs before Thornton continued, "Yeah, she was kinda cute, if gruff lookin', but hey, shit happens. Must've done something real bad or real stupid to get under the Dark Ace's radar."

The collective thought passed through the Storm Hawks that that statement alone was more of an _under_statement. Throwing a rock at an opponent most Sky Knights wouldn't have a chance against wasn't exactly the most intelligent of things Lupin could have done to him. It was certainly funny in hindsight, though.

"But that's not what I'm curious about. Why do you need to know where she is, hmm?"

The tables turned, Finn froze and began to think of excuses before he blurted, "Her cell is getting loose!"

The Talons stared at him. So did the others. _Aw, crap. Better wing it!_

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, we were told that her cell was gettin' busted up, what with her banging on it all the time. We were told to go repair it so she didn't escape."

They continued to stare. "Yeah? She couldn't get too far, even if she did. Besides, there's more'n one cell around, just stick her in another."

"What happens if she's moved and another prisoner is put in the broken cell? Kinda pointless to keep them locked up if they can break out, ya know?"

For a moment, there was silence between the two groups. Then the unannounced leader of the Talon trio grunted. "Makes sense, I guess. Professor Baldur's always wantin' new bodies for his experiments. Wouldn't really do to have them bustin' up his joint, and then having Master Cyclonis in a foul mood. Not that she's ever in a good mood, mind you…"

There was much grumbling to be had amongst the disgruntled Talons before the appointed leader sighed heavily. "Yeah, we have problems with the cell doors sometimes. But yer in the wrong place, you'll need to get to Professor Baldur's lab. He's got some holding cells for his future experiments. We'll show ya the way."

Exchanging glances as the three Talons turned away, it didn't take much prompting for the Storm Hawks to follow their appointed guides. While the others worried about being recognized by some other veteran Talon they'd encountered in previous fights, Piper was busy studying the new map versus her old one, and realized that there was a recent renovation that had been made within the last year or so.

She reasoned it was for this 'Professor Baldur', whoever he was, and her interest was sparked instantly. Folding the maps away, she turned to the younger, more approachable looking Talon.

"So, um…Thornton was it? Who is this Professor Baldur? He some sort of big wig or something?"

"Well, yeah, he kind of is. He's some sort of mad scientist or something, straight out of the comic books." The young man replied, arching a brow. "You haven't heard of him?"

"No. We're new, remember?"

"Hmm. Well, I don't know much about him, either, other than we sometimes have other soldiers go missing and end up being used for his experiments. Something about combining the genetic traits of humans and animals, I can't remember the word for it, though..." He screwed his face up in a scowl before turning to the other two. "Hey, Grayson, what's the name of that thing Baldur does? The one with the animals and stuff?"

"Splicin'. Nasty business. I hear it's painful, so you'd better stay in line or we'll feed you to him if you screw up."

"You mean like with Wimble the last time he screwed up trying to nail those Storm Hawk kids and ended up blastin' Snipe instead?"

The two older Talons shivered and Thornton paled visibly, swallowing roughly. "Wh-what happened to him?"

"Dead. Hear the experiment didn't work out too well. Melted from the inside out. Or so they say, you never know. Heard that the lizard-man was pissed for nearly a week straight, though. He hates the messes that some of the corpses leave behind, gets his scales all in a ruffle."

The Storm Hawks exchanged uneasy looks. Finn looked downright queasy, looking almost as pale, if not more so, as Thornton. Piper fell back in step beside Aerrow, trying to quell her flip-flopping stomach.

"I don't like the sound of this Aerrow. I know I've heard of splicing before, but I can't remember where. I know it's illegal though, like, beyond prison-for-life illegal."

Furrowing his brow, Aerrow gave her a glance and shook his head. "We won't let that happen to her. We'll get her out of here, you'll see."

Despite the confidence that fed her own, Piper still felt uneasy about all of this as she tried to figure out where in the hell she had heard the term splicing and why it was really bad news. The three Talons led them down a stone staircase that seemed to delve almost as deep as the dungeons. Around the spiral staircase they went until they were confronted by a thick metal door with a small sliding grate near the top of it. The tallest of the Talons, Grayson, gave the metal door a few hard pounds.

It was a while before they were answered and it was through the metal grate. A pair of yellow eyes set in a gnarled, scaled face stared impatiently out at them all, and a long hiss sounded off behind the thick metal.

"Vhat is it that you vant, vermin? You are disturbing my vork!"

He glowered at the three Talons standing before him. Grayson flinched before he cleared his throat, garnering sharp attention from the yellow eyes.

"Uh, we have that working party to fix the cell doors inside your lab, Professor Baldur." Grayson pointed behind him towards Aerrow and the others. The yellow eyes narrowed. The grate slid back and the door opened. A nearly seven foot Raptor came striding out, hissing menacingly as he assessed the four Storm Hawks.

"Vorking party? I don't remember ordering for a vorking party. Vhat is this, some sort of joke?" He turned his scrutinizing gaze towards the three for an explanation. A light seemed to dawn on them all of a sudden, and when they all whirled, the Storm Hawks knew their cover was blown. Junko immediately sprang into action, bowling over the three Talons easily and took the Raptor down with a flying tackle. He gave the metal door a harsh kick in the struggle as he bellowed, activating his Knuckle Busters. The others dodged out of the way of the struggling two, immediately delving into laboratory.

Piper gave a short stop and froze in place as she stared at the collection of crystals around her. Rare and common alike littered the laboratory.

"Piper, come on!"

The shout from Finn got her moving again and she trotted after them. Finn skidded ahead towards a door and peered inside. Kennels and cages of all sizes greeted his sight as well as several luminescent eyes staring back at him. He saw a few paws stick out of the bars and claw at the floor helplessly, while others simply stared. He stepped away and whirled when he heard Aerrow calling him from behind, finding an almost identical door there. Piper already picked the lock free and dodged inside, Aerrow close on her heels.

He darted after them, only to nearly run into them when they stopped short in front of a cell. "Did you find her?"

He turned towards the cell, finding a dank, lightless room behind bars, and a familiar profile lying on the single cot inside. He grinned wide at a so-far accomplished mission when he saw that it was Lupin, but it faded seconds afterwards when he realized that something wasn't right. He couldn't pinpoint it right away, but it finally hit him full in the face when he noticed what it was.

The long, lightly-colored thing draped on the floor beside the cot was a tail.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

**Took me a long, long while to get this chapter feeling just right. I didn't like the first chapter I'd written, didn't like the following drafts I pulled up, and finally this came into being. It's not perfect, I'll admit, but it's better than the last drafts I'd had.**


	17. Fracture

**Chapter Sixteen:  
****Fracture**

**Reviewers:**

**Namless Daydreamer **

**XxXTwilight-SinXxX**

**Apollo Pompano **

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**Magus732**

**Wicca in Training**

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**Saerphe**

_**Disclaimer: **_**All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them. **

**Note: Let's try to get back in the groove, shall we? **

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

_When our sense of reality is challenged, you know, really challenged, it can take some time to regain our footing.  
_**-Doctor Sweets, "**_**Bones**_**"**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

"What the hell? Hey, hey, I remember you two!"

The voice behind the three stiff youths startled them, set the clock reeling forward again. They whirled at the lightly accented voice to find another prisoner there in the cell across from Lupin's. Aerrow and Piper recognized the young man immediately.

"You! What're you doing here?"

"Oh, you know, I'm just on vacation in this little prison cell. What the fuck does it look like, man? I'm stuck in here, same as her and those two kids in the cell next to hers! Let me out, man!"

"Hey, you're those Sky Knights! Can you let me out, please, that lizard guy's got my little brother, I need to get to him—,"

The overlapping voices and pleads grew to such a volume, that the battle waging outside in the lab was almost immediately drowned out completely. Finn growled low under his breath before he yanked the crystal staff from Piper and elicited a startled yelp from her. He shot a few blasts at the lock on the young man's cell and then to the pleading younger girl whose cell was, as the guy had said, next to Lupin's. Then he whirled on Lupin's cell and blasted away at the lock there too. He received slack jawed expressions from the other two and from the now revealed Radarr, who had escaped his tool box prison upon entry to the lab.

"What?" He demanded. "They were getting annoying." He shrugged, as if that were all there was to it. "Now come on, let's get her out of here!"

They didn't need to be told twice. Aerrow and Piper ducked inside, while Radarr and Finn stood guard outside. The young man from the other cell came over, hunched over, looking ready to pull some punches, talking in a low voice to the sharpshooter. A young woman with straw-blonde hair ran past them and out of the holding area, face red and tear-streaked.

"What the hell did they do to her?" Piper said, a mixture of awe, disgust, fear, and confusion meshing together in her tone. She yanked the red-tinted goggles off her head and tossed them. She pushed back the unconscious young woman's hair from her face, saw a welting bruise on her face and examined the long bushy gray tail, the pointed ears…

Her stomach churned and her mind ached as she tried to remember what splicing was, but looking at Lupin now, she had a better idea.

"Come on, we'll figure this out on the _Condor_ and when we're far away from Cyclonia. Let's get her out of here."

With a reluctant nod, Piper stood back as Aerrow scooped up the young woman's prone form and they all retreated. The young man from the cell followed and Piper eyed him from over her shoulder.

"What is he doing here?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know? I just…got here, all right? Same as her. Now come on, let's go! I wanna get out of this creepy castle, man!"

They darted out of the holding area and found half the lab destroyed already from the battle waging between Junko and the Raptor. A metal table flipped and flew in the air, smashed against the ceiling and collapsed in a crumpled heap, sending glass and metal instruments flying everywhere. The young girl from before was pulling a little boy close to her from off a table with leather straps and Piper nearly stopped in her tracks at the sight. The boy was covered in quills, like some kind of animal. She had a feeling whatever the Raptor had done to Lupin, he'd done the same to the little boy. He couldn't have been more than four or five years old.

Anger boiled inside her and she whirled, taking the crystal staff that Finn still luckily had and darted forward towards the fight.

"Piper!"

"Just get out of here, I'll help Junko distract him!"

At the last of her words, the wall opposite where the cells had been exploded in a cloud of dust, debris and a metal door. It flew through the air and crashed into the wall opposite it. The others paused only momentarily before dashing away when they realized it was the lab's animals that had come crashing through the wall. Animals of all shapes and sizes came barreling through the dust cloud; running, hopping, flying, jumping, crawling, and slithering about. They scrambled over the metal tables, around and above. The chaos grew exponentially and the Talon soldiers who had just conveniently arrived were flabbergasted at the amount of pandemonium they were charged to face with. In the end, they did what any self-preserving human would do: they fled, tripping over one another and the long flight of stairs that now faced them. The fact that they had angry, confused and scared animals acting solely on instinct close on their heels did not help much in the panic department.

In the confusion of the stampeding beasts and having been double-teamed by the two young Storm Hawks, Professor Baldur was not in the happiest of moods. First, he was infiltrated by a Sky Knight squadron, led right to his doorstep—quite literally—by three buffoon Talon soldiers, was immediately engaged in one-on-one combat with a Wallop of all people, and was now having his animals escape his lab, and quite possibly his experiments stolen. He was, as previously mentioned, not in the happiest of moods.

And he had been in a happy mood earlier. His two first experiments—they had gone just as he'd imagined, planned and hoped. The girl had transformed beautifully, if albeit in a painful manner, and it had taken nearly twenty-four hours for the changes to fully blossom. The little boy's serum had worked in half that time, most likely due to his younger and faster metabolism and smaller body. It was easier of a transition that of the young woman's, who was a full grown adult. He was prepared to move on to his control group, the remaining male and female, when he had been so rudely interrupted.

Several times, he tried to make it back to his precious experiments, and each time, he was blocked and put onto the defensive. He would admit, he admired the Wallop's strength and bravery, his unrelenting power and stamina. Then there was the human female who threw herself into battle and fought like a hellion, equipped with only a Talon's crystal staff, but she made it a more effective weapon than any soldier he's encountered before. But there was more tenacity in her attacks the Wallop, even, maybe not as much of a powerhouse behind it all, but there was a fierceness, an anger to her attacks that he had to respect.

The Raptor, however, was reaching the end of his patience and admiration with the Sky Knights. He fought more furiously with his weapon, the harsh squeal of metal on metal whenever he met the young girl's staff against his blade ringing in the air. He snapped his teeth and lashed his tail, taking swipes with his metal limb where he could, but the girl just danced out of his range, while the Wallop, would block his attacks with just as much force. The Wallop, he figured, was not as light on his feet.

He hissed deeply and lashed out with his tail, sweeping it to knock the Wallop off his feet. His gray eyes went wide when he realized too late what happened and went toppling over. The girl, too, realized what had just happened, having once again danced out of his range. He laughed, ready to drive his weapon home down on the Wallop's broad chest, but a harsh zapping stung his backside, scorching his lab coat and his scales. He whirled, knuckles crackling when he saw it was the other Sky Knight, the blonde, wielding another fallen Talon's crystal staff. The red crystal at its tip smoked briefly while the young man glared daggers at him.

That was when he noticed the silence. The Raptor whirled and found his lab…utterly empty. The little boy on his table was gone. The hinges to his lab animal's kennel was smashed all to hell and thrown all the way across the way. The door to his cells was hanging open. His lab was destroyed from his battle with the Sky Knights. A growl built up in his throat and it grew to an enraged roar.

The roar was promptly cut short when a fist smashed into his face, knocking loose a few fangs and sent him flying into a wall head-first. Professor Baldur crumpled to the ground, barely conscious for a few moments, vision swimming before he slumped and passed out with a half-hearted hiss.

There was a brief moment of silence.

"Is he…is he dead?" Junko asked uncertainly, ears drooping slightly.

"No, unconscious." Piper answered before turning back towards the lab. She immediately found a discarded and worn knapsack—perhaps from one of the children they'd just liberated, or maybe from a past victim—under a table and began throwing notes and paperwork into it, as well as a few crystals here and there.

"What, what are you doing? We've got to get out of here!" Finn stared at Piper in disbelief as she continued to pile crystals and paperwork into the slowly growing knapsack.

"This place is crawling with answers as to what this Raptor was doing here. All his research and all his experimenting, whatever it was he was doing here, it's all just lying around. I'm not going to pass up this opportunity to get some information of what the Cyclonians are up to. Now, help me!"

Junko and Finn exchanged uneasy looks with one another, before reluctantly turning over to help. They found bags or crates to help pile more evidence into and when they had swept through everything, Piper took the lead.

"We don't have much time before the rest of the Talons get here. We've got to hurry."

"Well, no duh, we've got to hurry! You decided to go warrior woman on that Raptor! Junko was handling him just fine!"

Piper had no reply to that, knowing full well Junko had the situation under control. She was angry that she hadn't found a faster route here. If they had been faster through the Wastelands, not wasting time avoiding the main highways between the terras, then they could have possibly been here to prevent whatever had been done to Lupin. They could've prevented what had been done to that little boy.

Her stomach churned when she thought of what that monster had done to the boy especially. A child, barely five years old, and he was turned into something else. It made her skin crawl and itch unpleasantly. She wished she'd gotten a more vicious strike or two across that ugly lizard's face, maybe match his unscarred face with the rest of his gnarled visage.

The alarms wailed above them suddenly, bathing them all in a sea of bloody light, flashing on and off with each howl. Talons began to scuttle from seemingly every crevice and nook, like roaches when the lights turned off. The confusion, however, was a thankful distraction. No one knew who they were looking for, not in this pandemonium. They were able to slip through most of the crowd, almost invisibly it seemed.

Well, it all seemed to be going well…until they ran into Snipe, that is.

Of course he wouldn't recognize them off hand. The whole squadron collectively agreed that it might've been one too many knocks to the head from battle that made him slower than most people. Or, as Finn so eloquently put it, maybe he got dropped on his head too many times as a baby. Either way, they weren't too worried in running into him. He seemed intent on running off with the rest of the Talons, but if he hadn't slammed into Junko by accident, they probably could've gone on their way unhindered.

Unfortunately, the Wallop's faux Talon uniform had been shredded, especially across the chest. The only thing that had saved the Wallop from painful slash marks was his Storm Hawks uniform and the metal chest plate bearing his squadron's sigil. The minute Snipe pulled away and the burly man laid his gaze on it, he let out a bellow and raised his weapon at Junko.

"Storm Hawks in Cyclonia? Not on my watch! I'll smash you like bugs!"

Junko met the attack head on with his Knuckle Busters, the crunch and squeal of metal on metal as the weapons clashed together. The young Wallop snarled a little, only to have it die a little when he realized something. They were surrounded. A smirking Snipe guffawed, smacking his Energy Mace into his open palm as if it were nothing more than a baseball bat.

"Looks like three little birdies that couldn't fly the coop got stuck on the ground. What do you say we clean up the mess they made, boys?" He gave sneering looks to the Talons around him, and they returned his enthusiasm with chuckles of their own. It rippled in the air almost in tandem with the klaxons still wailing.

A rather nervous Finn pressed his back against Piper's, in one hand cradling a crate of crystals and paperwork close to his chest, the other awkwardly wielding a crystal staff. Piper had the knapsack shouldered and both hands holding her own staff with more confidence and ease than the sharpshooter, although she didn't look any better. Junko completed the triangle, fists engulfed in an emerald gleam and raised, ready to throw some punches.

Just as the Snipe threw his mace forward in a motion to attack, the ground trembled beneath them all, sending them sprawling. Several crystals from the crate Finn was holding clattered and skidded across the metal walkway, disappearing in a sea of unsteady legs. He gripped it harder while Junko landed a heavy hand on his friend's shoulder for support, momentarily deactivating them. The glow ceased almost immediately.

Snipe took barely two steps forward when it seemed the miniature quake had finished its business, only to be flung upwards and back into the crowd, bowling over several Talons as the metal ground splintered and blew apart. Shrapnel and energy flew straight in the air. In the gaping hole below, a blaster with a familiar blue-furred friend sat below. Radarr gave an impatient wave of the arm and a mad chattering of the teeth.

They didn't need any more prompting. Junko took the dive first, Finn following and after a quick sweep, Piper dove after them. The ship below disappeared in a flash of pale gray and sky blue moments later, leaving the Talons gaping and their fearless leader Snipe unconscious in a graceless heap upon his own men.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The first thing Lupin was aware of was the heat. It drew her out of sleep and at the same time, coaxed her deeper into it, soothing her. It wasn't until a teeth-rattling quake had her bolting upright from the cot she was lying on that she fully awoke, tired but alert enough to realize almost instantly that she was no longer in a cell. The pain in her head, just as quickly as her not-in-a-cell deduction had to come to her, spiked just as hard. She winced, covering her face in her hands, curling up in a ball, trying to push past the throbbing pain stabbing behind her eyes like glass, hammering like mallet around her cranium.

She heard something _whoosh_, and she vaguely thought in a stint of craziness, _oh here comes Kirk and Bones, and maybe Spock to tell me I'm an intruder being treated in the medical ward, lovely, just lovely. Beam me down now, Scotty, I want to go home._

"Oh, good. You're awake. The others will be glad to hear. Can you lie back down, please? I want to run a few quick tests." A woman spoke to her, her accent light and airy, with British lilt to it. Too tired and in pain to argue, Lupin complied, regretfully peeling her hands away from her face, cracking her eyes open. The lights were dimmer now, thankfully, and she stared through slit lids at the figure besides the cot she was on.

A slender young woman stood there, looking over her, a thin object in her hand.

"I'm going to check your eyes now. I need you to open them."

Suppressing a groan, Lupin pried them open a little more. The woman leaned in and immediately light seared her retinas. She wanted to jerk away and she did feel something jerk, but it was over in an instant, going to the next eye, and then it was done completely.

"Pupil reaction is normal." The woman said. Lupin was sure she'd heard that voice somewhere before, but her brain was too fuzzy, too slow, to fully comprehend _where_ or who. She closed her eyes tightly, trying to will away the pain. Her arm was lifted, cool hands holding it nice and gentle. Something was wrapped around her arm, tightened, and then something cold pressed beneath that. The pressure slowly eased, then went completely slack altogether. The thing around her arm was taken off.

"Blood pressure and pulse are a little above normal. Must be a side effect of what's been done to you."

_Done to me?_ Lupin wondered vaguely.

Her question going unanswered, the woman continued. "I'm going to help you sit up. I know you must be tired. I'm going to listen to your heart and breathing rate now. I need you to take deep breaths when I tell you to."

Barely nodding, Lupin slowly pushed herself up, and was given a helping hand when a thin but strong arm sat her up the rest of the way. The same cold object that had pressed into her arm was on her back now. She breathed deep when she was asked, ignoring the cold round thing on her back. It was pulled away at last and she could lie back down again. It was a relief, since the pounding seemed less intense when she was lying down.

"Your heart is beating a little faster than normal, but again, it might be a side effect of what's been done to you. Damn Cyclonian bastards."

At the word 'Cyclonian', Lupin felt the fuzziness lift away a little more. She could recall a few things, such as flying or a dank cell. _Why was I in a cell? Why was…_

_The Storm Hawks. _

It hit her like a punch in the gut, hard and unrelenting in its force as she remembered Halloween night, the party then the attack. She remembered being captured, Cyclonia, the meeting with Master Cyclonis, the laboratory—the Raptor.

Something had happened. She couldn't recall it as clearly as the other memories, but something had happened. Something painful and frightening, something that had made her skin crawl and made her want to cry.

"Do you need something right now? Water, food, anything. The others are anxious to see you up and about again."

Pushing past the painful lump in her throat, the constriction pushing down on her chest, Lupin managed, "Water," and as an afterthought she added, "Painkillers. My head's killing me."

"I can get that. Just wait a few minutes, all right? I'll let the others know you're awake."

Eyes still closed, Lupin only nodded at the quiet, thoughtful voice and turned onto her side, curling up into a ball. A hand gently patted her shoulder minutes later and she rolled back over and sat up, waving off the help and took the proffered glass of water and two pills from the woman.

She gulped them and nearly the whole glass in one swig.

"Easy. Don't make yourself sick. You've been out for a few days."

"Lovely," Lupin said. She gave the woman beside her a glance and slowly, it came to her who it was. It was Starling of the Interceptors squadron. Or what was left of it. The older woman regarded her with cool, intelligent eyes, lips pressed into a thin, patient line. Lupin had to duck her gaze, feeling embarrassed for gaping. "Where am I?"

"The _Condor_. Aerrow and the others got you out of Cyclonia. Left a big gaping hole in their terra and a long list of collateral damage in their wake, too."

"Lovely," Lupin repeated, knocking back the rest of the water. It felt good and cool against her dry throat. She ached for more, but already her stomach was churning unhappily at not having anything but pills and water in it.

"Quite. They made a quiet entry, but as usual, a noisy exit. In retrospect, though, it wasn't a bad thing. We didn't know where they were. They'd been missing for nearly two weeks."

_Two weeks, but why—oh. That's right, I know why…duh. _

Starling tilted her head a little at her now, as if scrutinizing something new and strange and curious.

"They claim that you might be able to help clear things up when you woke, but wouldn't say anymore until then. I just have to ask, though, besides what they're talking about and where they were, for starters…" Starling leaned in a little, and it was then that Lupin noticed the fine, hard edgy stare she was being given by the woman, a hard calculating gaze that made her uncomfortable. "What _are_ you?"

It was in that moment, Lupin realized something indeed was wrong. Something furry chose that very moment thumped against her hand, fur standing on end. It would've made Lupin think it was Radarr at first, if only she didn't feel it connected to herself, feeling every inch of muscle in it stiff and tense, and every thump it made had her spine tingling.

Lupin could only stare in a mixture of awe, fear, amazement, and confusion as a cold lump made an unpleasant, thorny home in her chest as she realized that she had a tail now. And this time, it wasn't attached to the back of her pants by a metal keychain clip. It was connected to her, flesh and bone.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**


	18. Far Flung

**Chapter Seventeen:  
Far Flung**

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**_Disclaimer: _All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them.**

**Note: I had a difficult time with this chapter. More specifically, it was getting the chapter started. I wanted it to lead up to something different than my original chapter, and I think I've succeeded. Sorry for the long wait, my readers. Life had also hit me hard, hence my difficulty starting this chapter. Like, for example, I hit a heavy writer's block and I'm also with child. **

**Yeah, I'm gonna be...a mom. How scary is that? **

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

_I just know, before this is over, I'm gonna a whole lot of serious therapy. Look at my eye twitchin'.  
_**-Donkey, "_Shrek_"**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The rumble of the engine was loudest here, but she didn't mind. At times, she was able to ignore it and instinctively turn it into a barely noticeable source of white noise in the background. And at these times, it was almost soothing to listen to. It lulled her to that half-asleep state, relaxed and forgetting everything that's happened in the past week that had been a mashed up, chaotic blurry mess of events jumbled together.

She didn't want to remember the mindless panic that had risen inside her when the Dark Ace had kidnapped her and presented her to Master Cyclonis like a trophy. She didn't want to remember her fear when Professor Baldur had used her as a lab rat, testing her physical fitness and appearance. She didn't want to remember the agonizing pain he'd caused her in the lab, with whatever that concoction he'd put into her body with.

She didn't want to remember that it had mutated parts of her body, altering them in such drastic ways, it made her skin crawl. She curled up further in the back seat of her car, eyes squeezed shut as she simply breathed, trying to keep herself in that pit of relaxation for a little longer, ignore the world, ignore the problems. _I'll fix it later,_ she kept telling herself. Although, she wasn't sure how she could fix something she didn't know the first thing about.

But her concentration broke. She focused more on the tumbling of the engines' turbines and working pistons, the hum of living machinery all around her, thrumming through the bay and up through her car. Lupin opened her eyes, listening to everything surrounding her, trying to pointedly ignore the thing that was now attached to the bottom of her spine, but to no avail. With the boxes piles and arranged around her, space was limited and tight in the back seat. Camaros were not exactly made for backseat leisure and comfort.

She became more aware of her differences that were now a part of her, much like she was aware she still had both hands and feet, as well as all ten fingers and ten toes. Despite the warmth in her car and under the blanket she was hiding under, she shivered and she felt the fur on the tail stand up, every fiber straight and tall.

She heard the footsteps, however faint above the sounds of the engines, long before they reached her vehicle and pulled at the blankets hiding her face just in time for someone to knock on her car's window. She peeped up at them, finding it to be Starling. The older woman looked at her through the window, a slight frown playing at her lips. Piper suddenly appeared beside her, looking more worried than Starling.

Grudgingly, Lupin sat up, knowing full well if she just hid back under the covers, it would be childish of her. It would also mean she was trying to run away from this issue, not standing up to them.

_But you _are_ running away,_ a nasty little voice reminded her. _That's why you're hiding in your precious car, instead of trying to be productive and helping them out. That Emily kid and her little brother are much braver than you are, you coward. _

Her gut churned at that, knowing full well it was the truth but she refused, at the moment, to acknowledge it. She squashed the little voice down as she pushed the front seat forward as best she could, unlocked her door and swung the door open. The two women waited as she slunk out of the backseat in an awkward, shimmying fashion, tail and all.

"We're approaching Terra Atmosia. We'll reach land within the next day or so and everyone's meeting in the bridge. They want you there too," Starling said, wasting no time to get to the point. Lupin glanced at Piper, who nodded in agreement.

"We're going to the Sky Council to tell them what we found out in Cyclonia. They're definitely going to want to know they started up an illegal experimentation…not that Master Cyclonis cares. She'll do whatever it takes to take over the Atmos. It's probably why people have been turning up missing in the past few months."

Starling nodded this time and motioned for Lupin to follow. Quietly, she did so, thoughts still churning, a familiar tightness in her chest growing.

She managed to quash everything back down before it could rise back up again. There was a priority to look forward to, something to occupy her mind with. It was something important that involved herself, Emily, her so-far nameless fellow street racer (again, she had failed to gain his name and hadn't thought to ask for it, having interacted with him too little), and Danny. It involved the people who had gone missing in Atmos over the course of several months and it involved the most recent missing and recently rediscovered Sky Knights, the Storm Hawks.

It was something important that couldn't just be put aside and forgotten about until the last minute, like a school project, paper, or report. It wasn't something she could call in sick for like a regular paying job.

No, she had to focus, she had to. So, she kept telling herself this as she followed Starling back to the bridge, as much as she'd rather stay cooped up in her car.

_No time feeling sorry for yourself. You want this fixed, don't you? Maybe they can fix you over on Terra Atmosia_. Her antagonist thoughts aside, Lupin made the last few steps towards the bridge door and it opened with a pneumatic hiss. She hesitated as Starling went through and she saw the others standing just beyond the doorway, including the three others who had come from her world.

Shaking off the shivers that wracked her body, Lupin stepped through after Starling. The others watched, some watching her with a look of a relief, and others with a neutral mask set in place. They were gathered around the metal table that the single couch sat snugly beside, a map pinned down in the middle. Danny was pressing against his older sister, wearing a hoodie sweatshirt, hiding his face into her side. He peeked out to see who had come in and looked at Lupin with wide eyes before hiding his face again. Lupin winced.

_Do I really look that bad or is it just him?_

Aerrow smiled a little broader at her, that same look of relief on his face as some of the others and he nodded to her. "Glad to see you're doing okay."

"Depends on how you define 'okay'. I just got turned into…something else." She shrugged, although she had to hide her second wince when his smile faltered and ducked his gaze, if only for a second. Radarr whined, ears drooping slightly and had immediately donned the 'kicked puppy look' quite perfectly. A regretful pang resonated in Lupin.

"It…I'm fine. Really, I'm just…still adjusting," she said in a meek attempt to reassure them, noticing Aerrow and Radarr weren't the only ones who had balked at her words. She eyed Danny once more, and froze when she saw his face. It was covered in miniature spoke-like growths, like that of a hedgehog or a porcupine, spreading out across his cheeks, soft fur on the bridge of his nose. His eyes bright and liquid brown and above all, scared. Terrified. But, at the same time, he was curious as he stared at Lupin, hands clutching at his sister's jacket, but he leaned closer towards Lupin.

She hesitated. Lupin wasn't the biggest fan of young children. She was awkward, for one, and two, didn't care much for them. But looking at him, a five-year-old kid, used in an extreme experiment like what had been done to her…

It set a fire ablaze in her chest, hot and angry, at what had happened to him. It made her want to rip apart the Raptor who had done this to him, to tear at the young ruler who had ordered this to be done. And, above all, she wanted to slash her newly formed claws through the man who had single-handedly torn apart Danny's family, ruined her life, and even jacked up her fellow racer's life.

"I'm fine," she reaffirmed to the others, nodding. "I promise."

Deep down, however, despite all her surface bravado and burning desire to get back at the people who did this to her and the others, she was most definitely not fine. She was feeling as scared as Danny looked. Trying to ignore the terror just lurking beneath the surface, she looked over the others, and nodded again.

"So…what's going on now?"

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

They landed on Terra Atmosia nearly a whole day later. Sleeping arrangements had been tight, what with five extra bodies on board of the _Condor_, but it wasn't impossible to find places. It was mid-morning when they touched down. Stork stayed behind for a few extra minutes to allow the cool down process for the _Condor_'s systems to take place, checking the gauges of the ship as he did so. Everyone gathered in the 'bay, waiting for the Merb and going over what was going to transpire.

"The Sky Council is awaiting for the information we have, as well as an explanation to you whereabouts. You still haven't told me where it was you've been." Starling said, scrutinizing Aerrow. He flashed a grin, although it was a slightly uneasy one.

"It's…complicated, Starling."

"How complicated can it be? Where did you go and why hadn't any of the other Sky Knight squadrons been able to get in contact with you? It's like you fell off the face of Atmos!"

"That's….not too far from the truth. Trust me, it's best if we just told everyone at the same time."

"Well, everyone _is_ going to be there, Aerrow. All the Sky Knight squadrons, and it's a big risk if anyone from Cyclonia found out. Multiple terras would be helpless and exposed to attack, but this is a meeting that can't be put off. You were gone for nearly two weeks. It's not something that can be dismissed easily; you have responsibilities as a Sky Knight, Aerrow."

The smile on Aerrow's face fell when Starling said this and he looked down the green bluff leading towards Terra Atmosia's bustling town below. People milled about and went on with their business, but Aerrow's eyes wandered toward the building where the Sky Council awaited, alongside countless Sky Knight squadrons. An almost-frown touched his lips and he furrowed his brow a little. Radarr gave a concerned whine that reflected Aerrow's feelings.

"It's still best if we tell the story only once." He gave a glance over towards the four standing off a ways: Lupin, Emily, Danny, and Leo. The wiry, tanner looking young man watched everything with a scowl, as if he were tired of being ignored at best, left out at worst. He obviously hadn't a clue what was going on and believed he could still make it home.

If only it were that simple, Aerrow thought. Leo, as it turned out, was in denial that he had been kidnapped and taken from one world and transported into another. He believed that everything was nothing but a bad dream, that he'll wake up eventually and find it all in his head. It was a shame it wasn't true for him, but Aerrow knew reality would hit him hard sooner or later.

Emily and Danny, he found out, knew much about Atmos already, having revealed to the Storm Hawks that they were the descendants of Walter Drake. Well, Emily did. To Danny, Atmos was nothing but a fairy tale his parents told him about through the old journal of Walter Drake. It was a sorry state of affairs for him to be found in Atmos and his first experience was a terrifying one that had left him permanently changed like he was. He could even begin to imagine the psychological damage he'd bear for the rest of his life because of this. Emily was no different. She was protective of her younger brother, lovingly so, and kept a sharp eye out for him. But it didn't erase the hurt in her eyes, much the same as her younger brother's.

She didn't want anything more to happen to him, her only family she had. He and the others had heard him crying periodically throughout the night, crying for his mother and father, while Emily tried to calm him in those times.

And then there was Lupin. Their friend. A person who had helped them out of the blue, right from the start, kept them safe for the short few days that they were in her world. She showed them things that were so different from Atmos, while giving them a rather fun experience as well. While she was goofy in her own right and at times, could be rather moody, she was kind enough to shelter them and give them information they would have otherwise not had. And now she was changed, just like poor Danny Drake.

He hoped they could reverse this. With the notes Piper had gathered from that Raptor's bunker down in Cyclonia, alongside vials of melted down crystals as well as crystals in their natural forms, there was hope.

Stork finally emerged from the bridge to join them, eyes narrowed as he approached them.

"Well, let's get this pony show on the road, shall we?" He motioned towards the open 'bay door, and the town below. "It isn't like we're getting any younger here."

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

It felt good to get solid land underneath their feet. The walk, however, was not as good. While Danny could hide his face with shadows and a hoodie sweatshirt, Lupin's changes had been more drastic and noticeable. She couldn't simply stuff an oversized, extra-fluffy four foot-long tail under her shirt without looking ridiculous. Neither could she hide the long, pointed jackal-like ears that had taken place of her human ears under a baseball cap, at least not easily.

As they entered town, they barely took notice of the others, but stopped and stared at her, like she was some new animal prancing about the city square on the way to the zoo without a collar or chain. It was unnerving, she wasn't going to lie, but she tried to follow after the others without showing she was bothered. She wasn't entirely sure she was successful.

As they crossed the large courtyard towards the Sky Knight Council's building, several individuals garbed in armor and riding gear loitered near the front door. While Leo—Lupin had finally learned his name, in passing and not by directly asking him—Emily and Danny did not recognize the men and women, Lupin did. She spotted Harrier of the Rex Guardians, Suzie Lu of the Absolute Zeroes, and a few others she recognized. Some she didn't. Some were completely new faces she'd never seen before, never on the show anyways.

_Other Sky Knight squadrons, perhaps,_ she thought curiously.

As they drew closer, she felt hear ears give a faint twitch and almost in an instant, they began to slowly droop back and press closer to the top of her head. The motions felt alien and strange, she had to lift a hand up to make sure they were still there. Her heart pattered a little faster, nervousness settling in when she saw the expressions on their faces and it didn't take a genius to recognize the tension in the air.

Harrier approached their group, staring them over, eyes lingering over Danny and Lupin longer than most, before casting his gaze to Aerrow.

"I see you've picked up some new…companions. Are they the reason we haven't been able to hail you for the past several weeks?"

"And then some," Aerrow nodded.

"I'll bet my family history that Cyclonia has some say in it as well, then."

"What else would you bet if it wasn't?" Finn piped up with a bit of a grin on his face. Piper shook her head, casting him a mild glare, but the sharpshooter merely ignored it. Junko hid a smile as Harrier slid his gaze to pin down Finn with his own annoyed glare before returning to look Aerrow over.

"I trust we'll have the full story inside. Come, the Council is waiting, as are plenty of Sky Knight squadrons. You'll notice a few aren't around and that's because they're having current issues. Issues, I might add, that occurred during your absence."

Concern swept through the Storm Hawks, but from the grim expression on Starling's face, she knew of this already. Piper turned to her, questions clearly written on her face.

"You know that some terras deal with fishing and freshwater commerce, right?"

"Yeah, the terras that the Neck Deeps—you don't mean…?"

Starling nodded. "Cyclonia managed to cut off a lot of trade routes to terras that depend on freshwater ships that fly through, like Terra Saharr and other desert-based terras that don't get very much rainfall throughout the year. They've also cut off the merchant trade routes that others depend upon." She hesitated if only for a second before adding, "It'll be discussed inside in further detail."

"Then why aren't there other squadrons out there helping the Neck Deeps? I mean, if the Cyclonians really are flying around, blocking trade routes, they'll figure out that you guys are all gone," Junko pointed out. Starling frowned.

"Because this is just as important. And we've already tried dispatching squadrons out there. It's not looking good. Snipe's been keeping a good offense in holding us back." Starling said with a twang of bitterness in her tone. She motioned for the others to follow and they, including the other Sky Knights, trooped after them.

"Snipe? We just saw him back at Cyclonia!" Piper said. Eyes turned to her.

"You're kidding! Maybe we'll have a better chance now that the head of their snake is gone for business! We can catch those Cyclonians unaware, don't ya know!" Suzy Lu grinned behind a wall of popped pink gum before pulling it back in with her tongue. Piper smiled in return, albeit somewhat less enthusiastic.

"Hopefully…"

All the while, Leo and Emily listened to all of this in rapture and even curiosity. Lupin's ears twitched, indicating she too was listening, but made no motion that she had interest. Danny remained glued to his sister's side, hiding from Suzy Lu as the Blizzarian walked by to stand by her squadron.

The other Sky Knights did the same and everyone settled down, looking towards the awaiting Sky Knight Council gathered on the podium above them. Their head looked the same as he had nearly a year ago to the Storm Hawks: elderly, donning a receding hairline, bushy white sideburns and a pair of pince-nez atop the bridge of his nose. He adjusted these a few times, peering critically over the gathered squadrons, lingering on the Storm Hawks last.

Finn squirmed under the gaze, feeling uncomfortable. Stork shot nervous glances around him, eye giving an occasional trademark twitch, hands fidgeting at his sides. Junko looked from face to face of the Sky Council's members, hiding any discomfort he was feeling. Piper and Aerrow both held a reserved, determined expression to show that they wouldn't back down, no matter what the council may say. Radarr whined, eyes darting from the face of the men staring at him.

"Let our meeting begin, then, since we're all here," the head councilman said at last, nodding to them all.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Their story was met incredulity and skepticism. But the deeper and more involved they became, the other squadrons were less inclined to disbelieve them. Lupin provided what she could here and there. Leo entered his own rather witty and smart ass remarks that surprisingly helped ease the tension between everyone. Even Lupin was grateful for it. Emily spoke of how she and her brother had been kidnapped by the Dark Ace, as well as their ancestry. This had more than just a few double-takes thrown her and Danny's way.

However, as soon as Piper revealed the copy of the journal for the famed Walter Drake, a sudden, pregnable hush fell over everyone. The head councilman, Halberd Mallard, took the journal into his hands, an awed look on his face. The other members of the Sky Knight Council gathered closer, hands reaching to touch it, pull it towards them. Halberd turned his aging eyes towards Emily and Danny, sharper and more assessing now.

"Is this…the original?"

Emily shook her head. "No. It's a copy. My…mama and daddy kept the original. They wanted…a copy to make its way back to this world, where it belonged, though."

"Child, this is an extraordinary gift to the people of Atmos. One of our most famous explorers, brought back home, so to speak. Thank you."

Emily flushed a little at the compliment, making her freckles stand out more and she mumbled something under her breath. Danny shifted his hand in his sister's and she gripped it back, careful as to not agitate herself on the new furry quails on the backs of his hands.

The story moved on. The Halloween party, the attack from the Dark Ace himself and his squadron of Talons, and then Lupin's kidnapping. They spoke of their radio silence for the week it took to get to Cyclonia and to rescue Lupin, Leo, Emily and Danny.

From there, however, eyes turned to those four individuals, waiting and expectant. Leo went first, all bravado at first, but by the time he finished his short-lived experience, he was more solemn and quiet. Emily spoke for her and Danny, telling how they were there first, and Leo came second, "all cussing and spitting like a cat thrown in water," as she put it. Lupin had been the last, and she spoke last as well.

None of the other three had met Master Cyclonis. She had. She left out her rebellious little outburst, not wanting the others to worry. She was tired of getting pitying or worried looks because of what had been done to her enough as it was. Then she turned to how she was taken to Professor Baldur's lab.

Everyone remained silent as she spoke, the same courtesy they had given the others. The silence grated on Lupin's nerves, and her mouth was going dry from speaking so much. She swallowed thickly as she finished with being taken to the table, being injected with some concoction and passing out from the pain of it all, and then waking up on the _Condor_ days later, changed the way she was.

Once more, the silence filled up the chamber. It was still enough that the phrase, "you could hear a pin drop," wouldn't be quite as farfetched as some might think it to be. Emily fidgeted under the duress, looking down at her brother several times.

"She…wasn't the only one," her voice seemed loud in the small space, and eyes looked to her, almost as if reassessing her. She ignored them as best she could, trying hiding the flush on her face and redness of her ears by looking back down at the younger brother. He squeezed her hand tighter, drawing even closer to her. She kneeled beside him, down low enough to look at his face hiding beneath the hoodie.

"It's okay. All right? I promise, it'll be all fine." She slowly reached up and pulled down the hoodie, revealing his slightly pointed ears poking just above his curly, brown hair, the downy of fur along the bridge of his nose, the small porcupine-like quails running across his puffy cheeks. He glanced shyly at the quiet men up on the podium, watching with ever widening eyes. They stared back and forth between Danny and Lupin, and fervent whispers broke out from the others squadrons.

"The Cyclonians are bringing back the Splicer Program. From the notes we took from Professor Baldur's lab, previous attempts either ended up in failure or died within hours after their transformations. Danny and Lupin are both the longest living subjects from the trials." Piper started, pulling out a list of papers she had brought with her. "These are a just a few of the people they took from nearby terras for these experiments, as well as the creatures used for the experiments."

"Splicer program? How in th' hell did Master Cyclonis get 'er mits on them experiments?" Lupin recognized him after a moment's groping for his name. It was Blister, the leader from the Third Degree Burners, who had called out. He stared with a hard expression at Danny and Lupin. Danny hid his face against his sister, yanking the hoodie back up. Lupin stared impassively back at the broader man.

"I don't know, why don't you go ask them yourselves?" She said back, her tone icy. "If you think I was a willing participant, then clean out your ears. I was forced into it. I didn't ask for this."

"'Course you didn't, love. I wasn't sayin' as much. Just that, the progam's been illegal an' fer years now. Seems a bit odd that sheila's found out 'bout it, is all. She's no more older'n you."

"I'm nearly twenty, thank you. I've got a few years on that bitch." Lupin crossed her arms over her chest, ears tall, erect and twitching on occasion. She saw a few of his squadron members grinning at her comment. Even Blister managed a half-smile, but the hardness of his expression remained.

"Too right, my mistake, girlie. Sorry. But my statement still stands. If Master Cyclonis is dredgin' up these experiments from the past, where does that leave us?"

"In the dust, if we don't do something about it." It was one of the women who ran with the Screaming Queens squadron. Lupin vaguely recognized them; they had appeared so little in the show and they had been nameless to boot. Her fellow squadron members nodded in agreement, scowls crossing their faces.

Murmurs of agreement rang throughout the chamber, and the councilmen muttered amongst themselves, shaking heads, pointing fingers, while the murmurs from the squadrons grew louder. Suggestions flew from mouths, arguments flared up.

Lupin's ears heard it all and spun wildly through her mind, trying to process it all. It would have been meaningless garble if she didn't have these new ears. Now they were like radio receptors, picking up everything and it was giving her a slight headache.

A clear, sharp pounding of wood on wood sounded off, clearing the air of the chatter from other squadrons. Halberd called out while banging a gavel, "Order! Order! Quiet, all of you!"

Slowly, all words died down and eyes turned to look at him and the other councilmen. Lupin tried not to show it, but she felt nervous and even a little afraid. She wondered what they were going to do with her, with the other three, now that these people knew they weren't from this world. That she and the little boy weren't quite human anymore.

_They wouldn't kill us, though, would they? They got plenty of non-human residents in this world. _

The worry, however, continued to gnaw at her gut. She was afraid if she tried walking, her legs would crumple like wet noodles. Her new ears seemed betrayed how she was feeling; they pressed flat against her skull, like a scolded dog would do.

Her thoughts were interrupted and she was brought back down to earth when a hand gently dropped onto her shoulder and gave a firm, reassuring squeeze. She turned her head to see Aerrow standing at her side, smiling.

"Don't worry, we'll figure this out. I promise."

The same promise she'd heard Emily make to her younger brother that everything would be okay. She wanted to believe those words, just like Danny might have when his older sister said them. She swallowed and nodded, trying to smile and lift her ears a little more, still getting used to their alien feel.

_Guess now I'm in permanent cosplay with these damned things. Better get used to them now then later,_ she told herself, almost jokingly to try and trick herself into relaxing. It didn't work as well as she hoped.

He looked away and back at Halberd, that same set determination he showed in fights and difficult tasks smoldering in his eyes. It was time to pull out the big guns and get to work. The only thing Lupin could think of while he spoke was to just breathe, one breath at a time.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**


	19. Change

**Chapter Eighteen:  
****Change**

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**_Disclaimer: _All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them. **

**Note: Thanks again to those who've reviewed; your names have been added to the bottom of the reviews for this chapter in honor of that. I was originally going to wait until I had caught up to the last chapter I'd left on, but hell, why wait? Very sorry to _Hikari_ for the long-ass wait, I know I've had your review in my inbox for a very, very long time! **

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**OoOoOoOoOoO**

**House: **_If we talk about nothing, nothing will change.  
_**Eve: **_It might._**  
House: **_How?_**  
Eve: **_Time.__Time changes everything._**  
House: **_That's what people say. It's not true. Doing things changes things. Not doing things leaves things exactly as they were.  
_**-Dr. House and Eve, "House M.D."**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The talking continued and eventually ventured into territory that concerned the other terras under attack, such as those that were under the Neck Deeps' protection. The Third Degree Burners all hissed their disapproval and anger over losing their trade routes for precious fresh water and other goods and wares they traded for over with the terras where the Neck Deeps patrolled.

"Our people ain't gonna last another month without that water. If Snipe really is gone, than we should launch a counter attack in th' meantime an' get them bloody Talons out afore they regroup with that brute!" Blister announced with a feral snarl. A few of the other desert-dwelling Sky Knight squadrons all voiced their agreement, some brandishing weapons, others fists, in the air with a cluttered cheer.

Halberd banged his gravel and called for quiet. When all of them settled, he adjusted his glasses, another of the councilman coughed. Another roved his eyes over the gruff figures before them, a frown playing at his lips.

"We understand that action needs to be taken, and we agree. But rushing in blindly isn't going to solve it."

"He's right. You'll need a plan. The Rex Guardians can arrange it, if you'd like." Harrier stepped forward, posture erect and poised, but Blister shook his head with his lips curled in disgust.

"Like bloody hell you will. It's not your terra at stake an' dyin' o' thirst, Harrier. We're takin' care of it."

"Now, see here!"

Then the arguments broke out as to who would run the mission to break the Cyclonians' defenses and aid the Neck Deeps.

It got to the point where physical fights were going to break out, and not even the heavy banging of the gavel could calm the hopped up squadrons. It would have all been very comical if seen from an outsider's perspective, Lupin mused, but upon seeing others who didn't wish to fight getting jostled and nearly thrown into the fray, it got her blood boiling.

She pushed against bodies when they slammed into her and moved through the crowd as best she could, nearly crying when someone stepped on her tail at least three times in a row. She managed to yank it away and held it close before clambering onto the podium that the councilmen were gathered on. They stared at her with wide eyes and gaping mouths before she inhaled deep and yelled, deep and loud, "QUIET!"

It took a few moments for the noise to die down and people to still themselves. She was glad to see Emily, Danny and even Leo unscathed, although from the excited flash on Leo's face, he'd been ready to jump in the fray if she hadn't spoken when she did. Lupin panted as she looked over the faces gathered before her, suddenly quite aware of what she'd just done, and felt her face flush, both from embarrassment and anger.

"What the hell is this, huh? What the fuck are you doing? Squabbling like little kids over who gets to play with the new toys! Get it fucking together, you're supposed to be fucking Sky Knights, aren't you? Jesus fucking Almighty fucking Christ! Fuck! I've been with the Storm Hawks for almost a month and they don't get this stupid when they fight, putting their fists in each other's faces like you're all doing! And they're what, half of all of y'all's ages? Grow the fuck up!"

It all tumbled out at a fast rate that left her panting, red-faced and shaky-limbed. People slowly began to untangle themselves from the mess they'd made, some looking abashed and ashamed at their actions. She saw that Danny was crying when she got back down to ground level and she made her way over to him and Emily. The blonde was on her knees, trying to comfort her younger brother, who merely cried all the harder. It sounded unnaturally loud in the suddenly quiet hall and people shifted uncomfortably, casting nervous glances towards the little boy. Leo was one of those people, looking unnaturally edgy around the crying child.

The Storm Hawks shifted from foot to foot, looking around them, some a little bewildered and shocked, as though still registering what had just happened. Stork twitched when someone coughed, head snapping in their direction. A can of something was in his shaking hand, and the way he stared at others around him, he was perhaps daring them to come close again. Lupin suspected it might've been mace or pepper spray or some other crazy concoction he had stock of on hand. Piper flashed a rather small smile in Lupin's direction, and she returned it, before stooping beside Emily and tried her best to sound comforting to Danny. She wasn't sure she was too successful, not with a mouth that had fangs, and large, pointy ears that seemed too big for her head.

She wasn't gifted with children when it came to making them comfortable or happy. She didn't make them unhappy either, not on purpose for any reason, at least. She wasn't entirely relaxed with them, either, finding herself in awkward situations with them in the oddest of times. However, there were a good handful of children that, for whatever reason, seemed to like her. And at the moment, she knew that leaving him like this when he was already upset and scared out of his mind would be cruel, even for her tastes.

When everything remained still and quiet for another few minutes, the councilman finally deemed it safe to continue, casting a glare around all around them.

"As…unorthodox as her methods were in reminding you all, Miss Lupin is right. You cannot allow in-fighting to occur in a time of war. That is what will break us down further and make us easier prey for the Cyclonians. We're already separated by miles of open skies and days, even weeks, of providing help for one another if we are attacked. We may not like one another, but in the end, strength as one will unite us against a common enemy."

Halberd adjusted his glasses once more, staring over them all.

"Now. Amongst yourselves in a civil manner, you'll decide who will lead the assault against the Cyclonians holding Terra Aquanos and its fellow terras under siege." Halberd paused as rabbling started up and he raised his voice to add, "_Outside._"

The talking ceased once more and the Sky Knights nodded and muttered their agreements. Halberd eyed them a moment longer before banging his gravel. The doors to the room were flung open and the rosy-golden rays of sunset streamed inside. Dust motes kicked up as squadrons tramped outside, talking amongst themselves. The Storm Hawks and Starling made to follow, with their four travelers bringing up the rear, but Halberd called them back. Curious, they remained rooted to the spot. Junko went over to close the door at the councilmen's beckoning, curious and anxious as to what else they had to say to them and privately at that.

Halberd sighed when it was quiet for a minute, taking his glasses off and pinching the bridge of his wide nose, eyes closed. The others looked grave as they talked quietly amongst themselves. It was nothing but mutterings to Lupin as well, except for the occasional word that she could glean.

With his glasses replaced, the elderly man laced his fingers together and peered down at the Storm Hawks, at Starling, and at the four other-worldly people.

"The news you bring of these illegal experiments is trouble, you understand."

There was hesitance for only a moment before several nods.

"Then you understand that we cannot allow this to continue. We have to find a way to stop this."

"We've already destroyed most of Professor Baldur's lab, stole a lot his notes and even a lot of equipment and ingredients he was using," Piper provided. Halberd eyed her, his gaze unwavering.

"Be that as it may…it won't be enough. Equipment can be replaced, as can crystals. If our dear Raptor is smart, he'll have memorized most of his theorems and recipes and more importantly, his notes."

"Then we'll have to take him out," Starling surmised. Halberd and his colleagues nodded.

The man to Halberd's immediate right, Grouse, added, "And you'll have to do it quickly. We cannot allow him to broach any more experiments that had been deemed outlawed years ago."

"Like what they've done with the Splicer Program." Aerrow supplied.

"Exactly," Another councilman agreed.

Halberd fixed his gaze on Lupin and on Danny, who had finally calmed enough from his crying and was now occasionally hiccupping.

"And that includes…getting rid of the evidence. All of it. We cannot allow this to fall into _anyone's_ hands."

It didn't take long for it to click. Shock, however, kept them at bay for a full minute, choking them. The words remained locked out in that time. Eyes darted between the two and the Sky Knight Council. Finally, as if the spell had finally lifted, they began shouting all at once.

"You can't be serious!"

"You can't kill them, they're—they're not even from this world, that isn't fair!"

"He's just a _little boy!_"

"They're human beings!"

The council members looked on gravely, faces grim as they took in all the anger, the arguments, the defensiveness of it all. The shock from them all, however, was what hit the worst.

"No," he finally said when their shouts had died down, bodies shaken with pent up anger and indignation. "They're no longer human, they're something else. That was the whole _point_ to the Splicer Program when it was banned; to change humans into something more, something…bestial."

"But we have plenty of non-human residents and species in Atmosia, you can't just kill them because they're—they're not—," Piper started to say, but usual her poise and grace with words failed her. Halberd inserted his own words before she could devise an ending.

"And we cannot allow anyone to get their hands on these two. There are plenty of people who would take them for their own ends and even if they aren't associated with Cyclonia, who's to say they won't start dealing with them because of this? The Splicer Program was a very dangerous experiment, one that never should have seen the light of day and we have never had any successful transformations—until these two. But, even then, who's to say that they won't stay stable? We can't risk it."

"An' you can't decide t' act like God an' just up an' kill 'em! I'm not letting you touch my little brother, like _hell_ you will!" Emily snarled, picking up her younger brother and holding him close. Danny's body shuddered, and once more, he began to sniffle and sob, burying his face against her shoulder. Emily winced slightly at the quills digging into her shoulder, but continued to glare at the councilmen while holding her brother close.

Despite the defiance in her eyes, there was terror in them as well. A bone-deep, soul-wrenching terror that she'd lose her only ties to her world, her only family taken from her. It was a penetrating fear that she'd be forced into solitude if they took Danny away. What would her parents think if she made her way back home without him? She would be a failure as an older sister, and a failure at protecting her younger brother.

Leo shot looks between the brother and sister, and the lone woman he's had past confrontations with him. He wouldn't deny he's had his dark thoughts about the woman, the one who made him look like an idiot in front of his friends, his family, on numerous occasions. She's humiliated him with her crappy muscle car, and yet at the same time, he knew that what lay under the engine of her car was better. She's always shown him up, one way or another, shown smarter tactics in driving, and yet drove with a reckless abandon as well.

It was, in a way, admirable at best, seething and anger-inducing at worst. He was at a paradox with her most of the time, but to hear her being given a death sentence? To hear that she needed to be exterminated, like some common rodent or roach, for being changed into…whatever she was, against her will? He had his limits. Even he found that a cruel sentence to hear. He wasn't exactly eye to eye with her, but this was too much even for his tastes.

Lupin herself had not said anything, she simply stared, eyes wider than usual, face frozen in a mixture of fear and disbelief. She could feel her heart climbing higher and higher up her throat, making it hard to breath. Tunnel vision began to make itself more present, focus narrowing to the men up on the podium before her. Her body was chilled, but her palms were sweaty and shaking. She felt rooted to the spot, unable to speak, to move, she could barely think.

She couldn't hear the others as they spoke, as they rabbled and fought verbally, hands flailing, voices rising higher and higher in anger and yes, even fear. She heard none of their pleas to reconsider. The gavel banged, but it was a distant echo in her ears.

_They…want to kill us. They want to kill us because…we were turned into something else. Turned into something less than human…_

_They don't even seem interested in seeing if we can be changed back. _

And then it hit her.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

It got to the point where Halberd had to call a break for the night. The next morning they would reconvene for another meeting concerning Terra Aquanos and the others, and who would help launch the counterattack. The Storm Hawks had won the night to keep Danny and Lupin, for the time being.

"If they are not present tomorrow, however, and you try to hide them in the forest beyond the city, there will be dire consequences for you, your squadron, and more importantly, for the four that are placed in your charge. Don't try anything stupid," Halberd warned, a promising, hard tone to his voice. Whatever intentions they might have possibly been scheming, Starling cast the Storm Hawks a meaningful glare all around. Finn shuffled his feet and stared at them, muttering under his breath. Junko's ears lowered slightly, but no one else said or did anything else, except turn towards the door to leave. Emily trudged behind, still holding onto Danny in that protective manner, casting dirty looks over her shoulder. Leo shot one of his own. Lupin watched Danny and Emily, and almost felt a pang of jealousy towards the younger woman.

She had never had, nor did she believe she ever would, have that same relationship with her brother as Emily had with her younger brother. Lupin's own brother, Jordan, was going down a bad road that was leaving her parents at their wits end on what to do with him. It left her with a bad taste in her mouth every time she thought of him, because she knew she could do nothing for him, or even to him, to change his ways. He was a budding drug user, verbally abusive bordering physically abusive and pathological liar all rolled into one. It made her jealous of those with better relationships with their siblings and often left her wondering where she had gone wrong with her own brother.

But those thoughts, however lingering they were, she forced to the back of her mind to dwell on for another day and hadn't moved an inch. Halberd noticed this, and remained seated, even as the other councilmen began to rise and stretch, looking ready to leave. The others hadn't noticed her absence yet, and she saw them making their slow, meandering way closer and closer to town. Halberd continued to watch, face creasing deeper as he frowned, making him appear older.

"There is not much you can do about your fate. I am truly sorry that this happened to you, and the boy as well, but you have to understand…if someone outside of the Atmos and Cyclonia got a hold of either of you…"

Lupin finally found her voice as she nodded and she said, "I know. I…know it's dangerous. It's like…unleashing a dormant virus in one person's body when there's still no cure. You risk someone being caught and having that virus being used against you."

"Not exactly, but…close." Halberd nodded. The other councilmen paused in their journey to the back door that only they were privileged to use, looking between Halberd and Lupin. He waved them off and without reluctance or looking back, the tired old men continued on their way out. When the door slammed home, Halberd returned his gaze to Lupin.

"I…I know that…I know that you probably won't change your mind, but…can you hear me out, just for a minute?"

For a moment, Halberd said nothing, studying her face, face still drawn in that creasing, old-man frown of his. He sighed and nodded at last, giving her a faint wave of his hand.

"Go on. I can spare a minute or two."

"Give me and Danny a year."

Silence hung heavy in the air between her and the Sky Knight Councilman. He stared at her, face momentarily pulling into a confused expression, but it did little to lessen his aged look.

"I'm…sorry?"

Lupin sucked in a breath, trying to swallow past the lump in her throat, trying to hold back the fear and the tears that threatened to break through_. I'm scared. I don't want to die. I don't…I don't want to die. _

"Give…give Danny and me a year. To find a cure. If Piper has a lot of Professor Baldur's notes, than maybe she can find a way to reverse this change on us. Give us that year to find that cure, to change us back. If…if the year is up and we haven't been changed back…then…"

She couldn't finish, but the implication was still left hanging in the air like a stinking corpse on the rope at the gallows. It made her head spin to think about it, the very thought making her sick, as if she were inhaling the sickly fumes of rotting meat or worse. She wanted nothing more than for this nightmare to end. To wake up in her bed at home, or her new apartment, and find that she'd dreamed this all, that the Storm Hawks was still a show, that everything was fine in her life…

Halberd remained quiet for several minutes, perhaps stunned by her offer or maybe even considering it…or thinking of how to let her down easy that her idea wouldn't fly.

She stared at him, knowing that she was probably showing how scared she was, but also that she was hopeful. She wiped at her eyes when she felt tears building up in the corners, sniffing deeply, a shudder running through her body. Her new tail wrapped around her legs, bringing some warmth to them through her jeans.

A breeze pushed through the open doors. Dusk was settling in, casting the room in deep blues and purples and grays of shadows. Halberd's face looked sunken and drawn and ghastly in this light, it almost frightened her. The prospect of being denied her request and being killed scared her even more, though. Of seeing Danny, a boy barely five years old, being killed scared her even worse.

She swallowed deeply, once more trying to push past the lump forming in there, to swallow her heart that had traveled up and made her throat throb painfully with each thump it made.

Halberd cast a single glance over his shoulder, then let his fingers steeple together on the podium as he regarded with his aging eyes.

"This…is an unorthodox request."

"I'm rather unorthodox myself," Lupin shot back. There might have been a faint, ghost of a smile that traced Halberd's lips, but Lupin wasn't sure.

"I…I will grant it. The others will not be pleased, but…we can make arrangements. We can put you and the boy in protective custody—,"

"No. Put Danny, his sister, and Leo in protective custody. Let me remain with the Storm Hawks."

Halberd's brows shot up slightly and he frowned in disapproval.

"You do realize that you'll expose yourself to a higher risk of capture to the Cyclonians or someone who would be willing to sell to them for a very high price."

"I know. But if you put us all in protective custody, then who would Piper be able to help? What would you have them do, visit once a month, and what if they can't reach us because of the Cyclonians, because of your war with them? Our year will be wasted waiting around on our asses for a cure they might have, but can't administer to us in time." She inhaled deeply, trying to calm herself, but it did little to help.

"They'll need…either me or Danny to help with tests. And it would be better for me than for Danny. You can't have a kid in the middle of a firefight. I have a better chance at learning to defend myself under them. I have a better chance at keeping myself out of the Cyclonian's hands than he would."

As good a point she had on all her arguments, she also knew there were flaws and holes to them as well. She was a good fighter, but not superb. The Storm Hawks would not always have the time to watch out for her in the middle of a fight. There would be enemies everywhere if she wasn't careful: crooks, spies, Cyclonian allies, and the like. There were probably more points that could shoot down her idea, but she couldn't think of them all.

Halberd seemed to be thinking this as well, she could see it on his face. Once more the fear gripped her heart and squeezed tightly and the animal instinct to flee was strong, to run and hide, to stay away from this all. She once more wished for this all to be a dream, to wake up at home and shake it off once she'd woken.

But knowing that it was all just wishful thinking left her stomach in knots, roiling with nausea. She felt her mouth slowly going dry when she felt the silence draw on and the hope of her idea being taken seriously slipping further and further away. Halberd cleared his throat, drawing her back to reality.

"Again…your ideas, words, and actions have been rather unorthodox. You remind me of what I've heard of Aerrow and the Storm Hawks have been doing as of lately in the past year. Their methods upturn traditional means and manners of how Sky Knight squadrons normally operate, even rambunctious squadrons like Blister's Third Degree Burners. They bring fresh ideas to the table. They help liven up things, bringing forth positive results from otherwise negative situations, and liven up stale battles that seem to be at standstills."

Here he paused, letting that sink in, and for a moment, Lupin dared to feel hope rekindle in her chest again. Halberd let a small smile peak at the corners of his lips.

"Your one year will be granted. I'm sure with Piper's uncanny brilliance with crystals, and perhaps even the added efforts of like-minded peoples, she can help you change back, if there is even the _slightest_ chance." Halberd's face grew solemn and grim. "But, if your year is up and you have not succeeded, or come close to succession…then I'm afraid your original sentence will have to be carried out."

Despite the heaviness settling in her chest at that last part, a slight building of elation and relief filled her. One year. She had gained her one year and by extension, given Danny a year. They had one year to find a way to reverse this change that Professor Baldur had inflicted on them.

_One year. _

**OoOoOoOoOoO**


	20. Liar

**Chapter Nineteen:  
****Liar**

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**_Disclaimer: _All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them. **

**Note: Added in the new reviewers to the end of the list, as I did with last chapter. I'll continue to do this as I post new chapters and if I get a new review every once in a while. :3 **

**Also, short chapter, and I thought I had posted this. Guess not. xD**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

_Everybody lies.  
_**-Dr. House, "**_**House M.D.**_**"**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

She wasn't alone when she stepped outside the building for the Sky Knight Council. It took her a moment to realize that before they cleared their throat off to her left. She jumped, tail stiff and every strand of fur standing on end, talons at the ends of her fingers at the ready. She was still unsettled at the changes in her body, but it didn't mean she couldn't use them to her advantage for the time being.

However, Lupin relaxed almost immediately upon seeing the familiar shock of tussled red hair and the wiry, lean frame garbed in armor and uniform. Aerrow gave her a faint smile, before glancing at the doors to the Sky Knight Council.

Lupin felt her breath hitch, nervousness making her heart flutter. _Did he hear everything?_

Almost as though he were reading her mind, he held his hands up. "Don't worry. I didn't eavesdrop or anything. I…figured whatever needed to be said, it was private. It's between you and them, I'm guessing."

She felt somewhat relieved, although she wasn't sure why. _Why do I want to hide it?_

The uneasiness and heaviness in her chest didn't appease when she tried to find an answer, and after a while, could only think of one thing: _I don't want them to worry or try something stupid. _

Not that she would accredit them to do something stupid, she just didn't want the sense of friendship and hell, even personal justice, to get in the way. As much as she wanted to tell them, she mostly didn't want them to worry, or to pity her and Danny as well. It would only distract them, in her eyes. They needed to focus. Focus on taking down Cyclonia and keeping them from breaching other unknown and most likely illegal experimentations. _They need to focus._

Aerrow motioned to her, nodding his head towards the town. "Come on."

"So you just waited for me? I could've made it back on my own. I mean, I don't mind and all, but still…" She shut her mouth, feeling like she was rambling, and inwardly cursed herself for bumbling like she was. Aerrow, however, chuckled and waved it off and she traipsed after him, tail slinking behind her at a relaxed position.

"Don't worry about it. Everyone's getting dinner ready at the _Condor_, it should be done by the time we get there. We got some time."

She hadn't really thought of food until he mentioned it. Her stomach clenched and gave a rumble. She grimaced, realizing just how hungry she was.

"Yeah, I guess…"

She didn't try to raise anymore conversation after that and neither did he. For the next few minutes, they walked in silence side by side, passing through the streets of Atmosia. It was rare that Lupin found herself unable to conjure up words. Usually, even in a bad situation, she could pull something worthwhile out of thin air, but here and now, she was silent. As much as she tried to wrangle something, anything, to talk about, she found she was mute on it all.

She was glad that Aerrow broke the silence.

"So…what exactly was it that they needed to talk to you back there?"

Almost.

Lupin hesitated, feeling that urge to hide what her deal with Halberd had been, that she and Danny both only had a year allowed to live, that they had to find a cure before their time was up. But she couldn't hide it for long, at least…not the last half where they only had a year.

"I…I talked with the Council, and…I managed to make a deal. Maybe we could…find a cure, a way to reverse this change on Danny and me. He's going to put Danny, Emily, and Leo in protective custody."

"And you?"

"Well, if you don't mind…maybe I could travel a little while with you and the others. And maybe…maybe Piper can find a way to reverse this, using Professor Baldur's notes and what crystals he had on hand that y'all took." She winced at how slapped together and rag-tagged that sounded. Aerrow stopped in his tracks and stared at her, and she thought, for a brief moment, he'd seen through her lie.

But then, he suddenly broke into a grin and laughed, an excited flash dancing in his eyes. "That's _great_! They should've thought of that in the first place!" He laughed again and pulled her into a hug. It happened too quickly before she could actually react and she remained stiff, feeling awkward before hesitantly returning it.

"Y-yeah, I know. It was a bit extreme, their…first suggestion."

Another chuckle came from him and Aerrow pulled away, a hand on her shoulder. "This is great news. The others will be relieved. I know Emily will be. She's been a bit…"

"Maternal?" Lupin provided helpfully and Aerrow grinned.

"You could say that."

Lupin snickered at that.

"You can stay as long as you need to. We'll be happy to have you onboard the _Condor_. And I'm sure Emily really will be glad to hear that her brother's safe now."

"I'm sure she will be."

"I'll bet you're glad too. Your neck was kind of on the line as well."

Lupin swallowed reflexively at that thought, and a shudder ran down her spine. She had to resist the urge to reach up and rub at her neck at the same time. "Yeah. I know."

For a moment, they stood there and Aerrow, realizing he still had his hand on her shoulder, picked it off carefully, but not before giving her a meaningful squeeze.

"We should get going. The others will start getting worried."

She nodded in agreement, relieved that her partial truth had been taken so easily, without question. She hated lying to Aerrow, even if by omission, but she felt that uneasiness in thinking of worrying Aerrow and the others. She knew she only had a year to help her and Danny. _And I have to make that time count. I have to get us fixed before that time is up. If we don't…_

The shudder returned and she couldn't finish the thought, mental images already popping up in her head.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The others had been just as ecstatic when they heard the news Lupin had brought them. Again, she felt that uncomfortable clench in her gut when she omitted the part where they only had a year to find a cure. She felt that discomfort gnawing inside her, but she knew she couldn't put that burden, that worry, that dark cloud over everyone's heads with that particular information. _We have to get it done in less than a year. I know it can be done._

Everyone's moods, however, lightened considerably with what truth she did manage to tell them. She wasn't surprised at Emily's apprehensiveness to be placed in protective custody, but understood to a point that it was in hers and her brother's best interests. When Lupin brought up the point that Danny would be more of a hindrance if he traveled alongside herself with the Storm Hawks, Emily conceded to that strong point, above the others.

"I know that you'll want him safe and on the front lines is anywhere but safe. I can take the stress he won't be able to. And you won't have to worry about him."

Lupin was also unsurprised at Leo's grouching at being left behind, wanting to be in the fray of action. She knew what kind of person he was. He was the kind that took risks, and dared to push the edge of the envelope further than others would.

That was why he raced; she knew it when she looked in his eyes every time he challenged her on the roads. She knew he was someone who couldn't sit still for too long or they'd go crazy without action to keep them moving, to keep them going. She recognized that trait all too well, because there were times when she was gripped by those same urges, the desire to move, faster and further than others.

She knew he couldn't be idle for too long, he'd need to be placed someplace where it'd be worthwhile his time and he'd be able to satisfy his thirst for that desire for constant movement.

The conversations lasted for a while, and even Starling seemed to lose the edge in her words and subtle body language, looking more relaxed than she had in the past few days. She smiled more; if that were any indication that she'd loosened herself up a bit. At the very least, that was what Lupin noticed.

The night grew on, and eventually, things began to die down slowly. People trickled away to rest. It soon whittled down to the point where it was only Lupin at the bridge, laying back on the couch, staring out the observation glass windows, halfheartedly locating stars and constellations. She had never been gifted with that sort of thing, but what few she did know, she couldn't find, such as Orion's belt, her easiest guide of stars to follow.

Nothing was the same. The skies were different, the lands were different, everything. Lupin shuddered, feeling as though she were on an alien planet instead of just another world.

"There's more to the deal than what you're letting on, isn't there?"

The voice startled Lupin out of her thoughts so badly; she nearly fell off the couch. With one hand over her racing heart, she turned with ears twitching in full towards the source of the voice and spotted Starling standing in the doorway to the bridge. Her sharp, green eyes were boring into her, even in the dark, Lupin could see it. Her heart didn't slow at all.

She still decided to make an attempt to keep up the façade.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"The supposed deal with the Sky Knight Council. Protective custody and only that? I know it's a valid option they might have considered in the first place, but to suddenly change their minds simply because you spoke with them? I'm not buying it. Fess up."

Lupin felt as though her racing heart had suddenly stopped beating altogether and she sat, barely breathing, staring up at Starling. The woman remained where she was, waiting, lips pursed, eyes narrowed. The confidence she kept a good swagger on started to crumble and Lupin ducked her gaze, unable to hold Starling's any longer.

A long, drawn out silence followed afterwards, uncomfortable and stifling.

"There…there is more." Lupin could barely hear herself talk when she finally answered.

Starling remained rooted to her spot for a heartbeat before moving closer.

"And?"

Lupin kept her gaze ducked, knowing if she looked anywhere else, she wouldn't go on.

"The deal…was to find a way to reverse this, for Danny and myself, in one year. If we don't, then…"

"The original sentence gets carried out." Starling finished, to which Lupin nodded. She stared down at her hands, trying to focus, but the tips of her fingers were now curved with claws and she stared at them with a shudder down her spine. She curled them into her palms, careful not to pierce the skin as she did this.

A hand on her shoulder made her jump in surprise, the second time in the past several minutes. Starling was there, slowly lowering herself to sit beside Lupin, careful to avoid sitting on her tail.

"You can't keep this from Emily and her brother. You need to tell them."

Lupin's stomach gave a clench and she swallowed dryly. "I know I do. I just…don't know how to tell her."

For a moment, Starling said nothing, she merely studied Lupin's face, as if searching for more, searching for answers she might've been hiding. The silence dragged on, the both of them unmoving. When a hand slid over hers and squeezed, Lupin had to steel herself from jumping at the contact, surprised. The tips of Starling's lips tilted slightly.

"Everything will work out. Piper is brilliant and we can have several other allies look into this as well. We'll make it before the year mark. And I'll help you, if you want, to break the news to Emily and her brother. She won't be happy, but…it's best if she knows."

For a minute, Lupin couldn't trust herself to speak, trying to push past the constriction in her throat and could only nod in agreement with Starling. She turned her focus away from the expectant face staring at her, trying to find something else to look at to keep herself from breaking down. It was the last thing she needed to do; despite all she wanted to do was curl up in a corner and cry. _I'm not the worst one off. Stop it. _

When she gained enough control of herself, she glanced at Starling. "…Tomorrow. We'll let them know tomorrow."

"Sounds good. Just give me a shout when you feel ready."

Starling gave her hand another meaningful squeeze and a good-natured pat before taking her leave. She paused, however, in front of the door just as it slid open with its quiet pneumatic hiss and said, "You should think of heading to bed soon. You'll need your rest. It's been a long day."

With that said, Starling took her leave, leaving Lupin to sit in silence again with her mulling thoughts.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

******Yes, Lupin feels terribly for lying. She can do it with a straight face most times, but it doesn't mean she doesn't feel bad about it.**


End file.
